Zuko's adventure with MissSmartypantsbossyboots
by emletish
Summary: Zuko goes on a quest. Katara follows. What shennagins will our dynamic duo get into? A quest, some romance and a lot of sillyness await. In chapter 19: Our dynamic duo find the answers to their questions. COMPLETE!
1. Observing, not perving

Miss-smarty-pants- bossy-boots-know-it-all and his royal dorkiness find the Oracle

Katara wasn't _perving,_ She was _observing._ And they were two very different things- no matter what Toph had to say about it. Okay, so she had taken to watching Zuko and Aang train with great fascination. She'd watched Aang learn earthbending too and that didn't have anything to do with seeing Toph all sweaty. Not that she watched Zuko train Aang to see him all sweaty. And shirtless. And muscular. Not at all. That wasn't the reason. It was observing! Not perving. And she had a…a medical interest in the whole proceedings. Zuko had been severely injured and she was observing him to make sure he had healed properly and for Toph to suggest otherwise was just..just..SO WRONG.

Where did Toph get these ideas from anyway. She said she could sense these things. What did_ that_ mean? Katara could _sense _that Toph wasobviously spending too much time in the sun and getting sunstroke and hallucinating. It didn't mean what Toph thought it meant that Katara had insisted on more healing sessions, even though Zuko's lightening scar had healed as best it could. Or that she perv-Observed him firebending with Aang, or that they always sat together at dinner. Katara liked talking to him, but that didn't _mean_ anything.

It didn't mean anything that the first time she was able to make him smile it gave her a feeling like really really good indigestion. Could indigestion be good? Whatever, that's what this feeling was like. His blink-and-you'll-miss-it smile had for a brief moment completely transformed his face. It was still his face, obviously, but it looked…sweeter and nicer. He looked handsome. Not that Katara would spend her time thinking about how handsome he was. Pfft. As if. Katara had better things to do.

The war had ended a couple of months ago and an era of reconstruction and rebuilding was in full swing. All the Gaang had stayed in the firenation with Zuko. The firenation was like the naughty kid at school, you couldn't turn your back on it! You had to watch them, but with the right guidance and discipline, they could come good. Aang wanted to stay and help Zuko and heal the world and all that other stuff that Aang liked doing. And the Gaang as a general rule, followed where Aang led.

Even though he'd been able to beat Ozai, he still hadn't completely mastered firebending. Firebending teachers had literally fallen over themselves volunteering to teach him, but Aang had, loyally, wanted to keep Zuko as his Sifu. Zuko had seemed oddly touched that someone would stick with him out of something other than necessity. Every morning a little after sunrise, they practiced. Every morning a little after that, Katara found a reason to be in the courtyard. What? That doesn't mean anything.

Every second day, in the middle of the afternoon, Katara healed Zuko's lightening scar. It was healing slower than Aang's because Katara hadn't had the aid of spirit water in the initial healing. She really was doing her best, but it was going to be an ugly scar. She hadn't seen any noticeable improvement for the last two sessions but she still kept insisting on it. Zuko insisted that it didn't pain him, but he was always so stoic about things so Katara didn't put much stock in what he _said_ pained him. She could still feel a tight bundle of negative energy around the scar, over his heart. She wanted to ease it a little. She never imagined anyone would take a bolt of lightening for her. She didn't like to think on it too much, on what could've happened if Zuko hadn't been able to deflect some of the lightening. No, she couldn't think about that. It was too overwhelming. Instead she'd do everything she could to heal Zuko. It didn't hurt Katara's determination that every second day she got to run her hands all over Zuko's chest. For healing purposes of course.

Toph thought all this _meant _something. But really it just meant that she was being a good friend to the new Firelord. That all there was between them. They were just friendly friends who were friendly a lot. She was getting to know him so much better and she liked what she saw underneath the brash, brave exterior he presented to the world. She was getting to know the shy, dorky dude that Zuko could be when he thought no one was watching and it was just the two of them. They talked a lot, when it was just the two of them…And his abs (she may have named them in her head). She noticed him now, in a friendly way of course.

She noticed when he snuck ever-so-sneakily out in the middle of the night. Katara had learned all she knew about being a sneaky ninja from Zuko. She knew all his tricks. She knew he was _up to something_. Katara had never been one to stand idly by. She was actually physically unable not to be a nosy-parker and but her nose in. nosily. It was her thing. It was what she did. She got dressed quickly and silently and followed Zuko out into the night.


	2. in search of floozies

What was Zuko doing? This was his most ridiculous ill-thought plan ever! Zuko, as the veteran of many a ridiculous ill-thought out plans thought that achieving a plan more stupid was a significant achievement. He was so embarrassed by the plan that he didn't tell anybody what he was up to. He wrote a long (blathering, excuse filled) note for his uncle that he thought would be sufficient. He just couldn't imagine getting up in front of all his friends and announcing that he was going on an old fashioned Quest to find a legendary Oracle that might not exist at all. Sokka would tease him forever! And they'd all definitely any respect they previously had in him. Zuko didn't want to lose that.

This was just so stupid. Who got their advice from Oracles anyway? Zuko wouldn't even attempt this if the situation was so hopeless with his Mother. His father just laughed in his face every time he asked about her. He wasn't going back to visit that man again. And his Uncle had seemed so optimistic at first. _"Don't worry Zuko, I'm sure she'll find her way back by my Birthday Feast."_ Uncle's birthday feast had rolled around and no mother had arrived. _"Don't worry Zuko, It is probably just taking her a while to travel from wherever she ended up."_ He said after that, but still no word from Mother. Uncle had been sure that she would definitely arrive by All Souls Day (a firenation holiday that is held on the second full moon of Autumn). That had been two weeks ago and when she hadn't come, Zuko felt the little bit of optimism he still had die a little. Uncle had, tactfully, kindly, stopped mentioning her at all.

If she was never coming back for him, which was seeming more and more likely, Zuko had to know what had happened to her. If she was alive, he wanted to know so he could find her and hold her and tell her how much he missed her. If she was dead he wanted to know for sure so that he could mourn her and hold a funeral and say goodbye properly. The not-knowing was the worst thing possible. The Oracle was said to know all. The Oracle would answer one question of an applicant, if they had proved themselves worthy. Zuko was the Avatar's firebending teacher, and been judged by the dragons and helps defeat and evil overlord and win a centuries old war. He was feeling worthy! He was ready! Bring it on Oracle. If this oracle could tell him what had happened to his mother then anything that was involved in 'proving himself' would be worth it. And then he'd know, once and for all.

The only snag in his plan was that the oracle hadn't been seen for a hundred years.

But Zuko wasn't one to let a little fact like that get him down. No way. Aang hadn't been seen for a hundred years and look at him now! He felt a little bad for bailing on the kid after he'd chosen Zuko, over Jeong Jeong and His Uncle as his firebending Sifu. The kid could defeat Ozai but still hadn't mastered the phoenix form. Zuko liked teaching Aang and he'd been oddly touched when Aang wanted to keep him as a teacher when he had the option of other, better teachers. He'd left detailed explanations of what he wanted his Uncle to teach Aang in his absence and he knew his Uncle would be a better teacher and then Aang would want to keep his uncle over him and then he'd never get to show off for Katara in the mornings. Not that he was showing off, he was just trying to be extra impressive for her.

She just had a weird effect on him. Kinda like indigestion, but good indigestion and she was just there and watching with her big blue eyes, almost every morning. He knew she came to watch Aang and he knew he wasn't meant to think about her the way he had been thinking about her. The indigestion feeling normally gave way to these thoughts that were _completely inappropriate_. He knew that Aang fancied her and Zuko was too honorable to make a move on anybody that Aang fancied. This did not stop Zuko from hoping that Aang would start fancying someone else soon, so that it would be appropriate for Zuko to have indigestion thoughts about Katara.

She was just always there! Watching him in the mornings, sitting with him at dinner, smiling at him and the healing sessions. Oh spirits the healing sessions! Zuko didn't even want to start thinking about the healing sessions because they quickly gave was to _extremely inappropriate_ thoughts. A good part about this little quest would be that he could have a quick break from her. He didn't want a long break- he'd miss her too much. Just a quick break to get his thoughts together and his composure back. After this he could go back and watch her be with Aang and not be jealous. at . all. Totally not jealous. It wouldn't even faze him.

He might even find a nice floozy on the road who would give him the indigestion feeling even more than Katara. And then Katara and Aang would see how happy he and his Floozy were together and they'd be jealous. That was a lie. What was wrong with him, thinking these thoughts. He wasn't the floozy attracting type. Not that he blamed the floozies, what with his face and everything. Katara, well the whole group really, didn't seem bothered by his scar. But Zuko still noticed the slight gasp, the flinch, that occurred when people met him for the first time and noticed the scar. So no floozies for him.

Maybe Mai would like to get back together. They'd broken up over a big misunderstanding with a fruit tart. But maybe they could give it another go. No, that was a bad idea, he and Mai were just getting friendly again and he didn't want to lead her along. She just didn't give him the indigestion feeling. And she knew it too. He could lie to himself but he couldn't fool Mai.

Suddenly Zuko heard it again. The faintest trace, the softest footstep behind him.

He stopped, the footsteps stopped.

He started walking to the left. The footsteps followed.

He was concentrating so hard on the footsteps that he stumbled over a rock in the path and nearly fell. The voice belonging to the footsteps muffled a laugh.

He felt his heart sink. Of course she would follow him. He knew Katara's graceful gait anywhere. He knew her muffled laugh. Even when she was trying to be sneaky, he knew it was her.

"I know you're there Katara." He said in a resigned fashion.

"Damn. How did you know?" Katara answered, abandoning all sneaky pretense and walking toward him. Zuko gulped. She looked very beautiful in the moonlight. The breeze softly blew a few strands back from her face and her eyes were so blue and she was wearing her midriff baring Firenation outfit and she…

FOCUS Zuko!

"You're not as sly as you think." Zuko said as evenly as he could. Though really she was a bit sneakier. She'd followed him for a long time before he'd noticed. This was what you got for thinking about floozies. If Zuko had been concentrating more on his surroundings and less on future floozies she never could have snuck up on him like this.

"What are you doing here?" the both asked each other in unison.


	3. Jinx

"What are you doing here!"They asked each other simultaneously.

"Hey jinx!"Katara said good naturedly, thus successfully avoiding answering the question.

"Jinx? What's jinx?" Zuko said looking truly confused. Poor Zuko, didn't even know what jinx was. Katara blamed Azula personally. Little sisters are meant to jinx older brothers, not fly in to homicidal rages and try to kill them.

"If two people say the same thing at the same time then one of them gets to jinx the other. Now you can't speak, until I release you." Katara replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. Zuko appeared absolutely perplexed. He opened his mouth, closed it again, looked around, sighed and finally threw his arms up and said:

"Jinx is stupid! And it doesn't explain what you're doing here."

"It doesn't explain what you're doing here either Zuko. And you're not meant to speak until I release you, but I understand that you're new at jinx so I'll let it go. You may speak." She said with a magnanimous little hand gesture.

"Did you follow me?" Zuko asked

"Yes, obviously. Why else would I be out here." Katara said.

"Why?"

Katara looked down shyly. He seemed to genuinely want to know and she didn't have an answer. She didn't know what possessed her to throw on the nearest clothes she could grab and run out into the night. She just didn't like the thought of him going off to do something foolhardy on his own. And he obviously was doing something foolhardy. Nobody snuck out to do something sensible after all. Besides, she liked being around him. Not in the ridiculously moony way that Toph thought. Urgh. Katara could here the girl's voice chant in her sing song voice _just admit you liiiiike him Sugar Queen. _She just worried about him. He was obviously off to do something stupid. Katara decided that the best form of defense was attack. Rather than admit she liked being around him, she fired back.

"I'm watching out for you. You idiot." Zuko made a face at that. "You're obviously off to do something stupid and dangerous. Because you're sneaky off and that either means danger or trouble and I don't want you getting into either." Katara said in a self justified manner complete with a little foot stamp.

"It doesn't necessarily mean danger or trouble" Zuko said a little defensively.

"Oh so all the other times you've sneaked off it was just to prance about safely in a field of daisys?" Katara said incredulously. Did he think she was born yesterday? He'd _told _(okay after she had nagged just a little)her about all the things he got up to as the blue spirit and she knew that a sneaky Zuko was definitely going to find trouble.

"Ugh fine!" Zuko sighed before conceding, "It's a little dangerous, but nothing I can't handle."

"Sorry Zuko, I've followed you this far. I'm coming with you whether you like it or not. " Katara said in full determined stance. She had her hands on her hip and everything. She was not letting Zuko out of her sight.

"You can't just invite yourself along on my quest. It's a dangerous. Like really, really, really dangerous" Zuko spluttered indignantly before realizing his mistake. Katara didn't mind danger, Danger was Katara's middle name. Katara didn't mind about danger but she seriously minded her friend being a giant prize idiot and running off to find danger alone. Katara made a face and took a deep breath. She had a speech coming. Zuko seemed to have realized his mistake and was backpedalling fast.

"Did I say dangerous? I meant boring. Like really, really, really boring. So boring that you'll write messenger hawks to Sokka that say 'Dear Sokka. I'm so bored.' And that'd be it." Zuko said while putting up his hands in a placating gesture.

"Listen buster!" oh there was going to be trouble as soon as Katara calls someone buster.

"If you think I'm just going to let you swan off into the sunset…"

"I wasn't swanning. I was sneaking!" Zuko unwisely interjected. Katara quelled this interruption with a look. She was in speech mode.

"…on some foolhardy stupid quest all on your own because you delicate male ego can't ask for help then you're got another thing coming! I'm going with you whether you like it or not, what happens if you get really hurt and no one is around to help you. Did you think of that! Did you think of how worried and sad everyone would be!" Katara demanded in a voice that could be called shrill- by a much braver person.

Zuko waited a few seconds until the tide of righteous anger ebbed. He could see Katara's point. It would be better, easier and safer to go with a second person. But the quest was meant to give him time away from her, so he could be moony and mopey in peace. If she came along, he wouldn't be able to even sigh wistfully without her wanting to know _what's wrong._ Maybe it was a result of his pride (or delicate male ego as Katara had called it) but he wanted to do this alone. It was about his mother and that was…private. Katara thought she could just put her hands on her hips and make a speech and get her own way with him all the time. Well she could, mostly. And often she didn't even need the speech or the hands on the hips. But this time Zuko didn't want to acquiesce so easily.

"Katara I really appreciate you wanting to come along. But I just want to go alone and I'll be fine on my own. I always have been. " Zuko said in what he thought was a diplomatic voice and once again realized his mistake a little too late.

Zuko wished he could have Uncle follow him around and just stop him before he made mistakes like this. He could just stand behind him and say Miiiiistake. He knew deep in his bones that another rant was coming his way.

"Oh, you always have been? Really? Because I remember several instances where you definitely were not fine on your own! What about the time you nearly fell to your death fighting with crazy Azula and you would have too if I hadn't been there to catch you, or the time…and she was off again. A very long list followed, about all the times he'd done something stupid and gotten injured or nearly injured, How she did so much for him and never got appreciated. Zuko held up a hand to silence her before she could get to the part about how he would be perpetually wearing odd socks and eating fire flakes for breakfast if it wasn't for her.

"Okay, okay you can come." Zuko said and Katara paused mid rant.

"Oh. Well that's good then." Katara didn't seem to have anything else to add to that. And there was an awkward pause where they both just looked at each other in indecision. Zuko almost looked like he was smiling but Katara couldn't be sure that she wasn't imagining it. He readjusted his backpack and gestured along the path.

"Shall we go?"

Katara gave a little smile and fell instep with him as they walked together. They walked in companionable silence for a while and once every so often Zuko's hand would brush hers and she would feel a flicker of that weird good indigestion feeling. Or maybe it was actual indigestion. Katara couldn't tell. She'd never been afflicted with indigestion quiet like this before.

So where are we going anyway?" Katara asked after a while.

"You gave me the buster speech and you didn't even know where we were going?" Zuko asked with a smile. Zuko actually kind of liked Katara's bossiness, though he'd never tell her in a million billion years. But he knew she bossed as a way of showing affection, similar to the way toph was always punching him in the arm. Zuko was no stranger to weird ways of showing affection, (Zuko was still getting used to affection and he wasn't very good at it yet) he appreciated the simple directness of Katara's affection. She bossed, she listened and she touched. Really, she'd been the first person who wasn't his mother or his uncle to hug him. She was definitely the first to touch his scar. He'd never let anybody before Katara touch his scar. Now she touched his scars all the time and her hands were soft and sometimes when she leaned over he could see her…

FOCUS ZUKO.

"You'll think it's a stupid quest." Zuko said a little sadly. He thought it was a stupid idea too, but he just had to know.

"Try me." Katara answered.

"We're going to see an oracle. And prove our worth. Then we get to ask it a question. I was going to ask it where my mother was." Katara liked that he instantly started referring to them as a 'we', like they were already a team. She wasn't surprised that this would be about his mother. She was surprised that he would talk about her so matter-of-factly. She rarely spoke about her mother because it just made her too sad and she thought that Zuko rarely spoke about his mother for them same reason. It was worse for him, she thought, not knowing. At least she'd be able to grieve and move on. Not knowing would be worse.

"Oh." Katara didn't quite know how to respond. She was glad that she could be here, with him, after he'd been so supportive of her when they went to go see the southern raiders. They'd always bonded over their missing mothers. It was their thing. She just worried that an oracle wouldn't be able to give him the answer he was looking for. But she didn't think he was stupid for hoping.

"Just so you know, I don't think going to an oracle is stupid." Katara said after a while. The autumn night had gotten a little colder and she shivered slightly. She hadn't packed anything, not even jacket when she'd run out after Zuko.

"You don't?" Zuko asked as he took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders without comment just as she was answering him.

"No, When Aang and Sokka and I were in the earth kingdom,…Zuko I couldn't take you're jacket. won't you be cold?" Katara turned and looked at him and thought two thoughts. The first being _Ooh bare arms. Mmmmmmm. _The second was _oh no he will be cold. _Zuko didn't seem bothered at all and simply said "It's okay. I can keep warm in other ways."

"Okay then" she said as she wrapped his jacket firmly around herself. It smelled like him and that comforted her. Since when did she know or care what Zuko smelled like? They kept walking. Katara had lost her train of thought. She'd been talking about something and now her brain was just filled with Zuko smell and Zuko arms. Work brain! She remembered what she'd been about to say.

"When we were in the earth kingdom, we met a great seer called Aunt Wu. Sokka thought it was all bollocks, but everything she said came true and everyone in the village always believed her. I thought she was brilliant. She told me the most amazing things"

"What did she tell you?" Zuko asked with what Katara was sure was a smile.

"That my true love would be a powerful bender."

"Aang?" Zuko guessed and seemed to deflate a little. The smile was gone. Katara had thought that Aunt Wu might have meant Aang at the time, but then at the time he had been the only other bender that she _knew_ well. She wasn't sure how she felt about Aang. She did love him, but in a similar manner to how she loved Sokka. She was started to suspect that this kind of love wouldn't be enough for Aang and she didn't know how she felt about that. She just knew that she never got the indigestion feeling around Aang.

"He's not the only powerful bender out there." She replied, perhaps a little defensively. They'd both paused on the road and Zuko was looking at her with his amber eyes. She looked at him shyly and blushed. Even if she was embarrassed she held eye contact with them. They weren't so very far apart on the narrow dirt track. What was this…were they having a moment.

"Maybe she meant that Haru guy with that weird mustache." Zuko said in what he thought was a comforting voice. Katara had seemed so agitated when he brought up Aang and he wanted to smooth it over and make her feel better. Her eyes widened in surprise but Zuko continued. "He's a powerful bender and he seems keen on you."

Katara looked acutely disappointed. He'd said the wrong thing, he knew. Maybe she was sad because her future husband had that weird growth that masqueraded as a mustache on his face. Zuko could see why. It was a stupid looking mustache. Zuko knew that Ty lee thought he would be better looking without it.

"It's the mustache isn't it? I'm sure he can shave it off." Zuko finished lamely. Katara made an incredulous face and then schooled her features.

"We should probably make camp here for the night." she said in an even tone as she pulled the jacket even tighter around her. She would not have believed it, if someone told her a year ago that she'd be in the fire nation with Zuko and know what he smelled like and wear his jacket. He sat down and started unpacking his bag. He looked up a little guiltily. He'd only packed one sleeping bag.


	4. everybody loves snuggling

There was only one sleeping bag. They both looked down at the offending object as if they could mentally will it to double itself. Alas no luck. The sleeping bag stayed stubbornly single. It wasn't so bad. It was Zuko's and it looked almost roomy. Katara was sure there would be room enough for the both of them. Yes, she thought to herself as she regarded the bag, there was definitely room for two. That was the most practical solution really. And she was all about being practical.

"Well …err…..well you can have the sleeping bag and I'll…."Zuko sputtered. She hadn't noticed until now but she could see in the moonlight that his face was terribly flushed.

"Oh! Don't be an idiot. Obviously we'll have to share" she said practically. Because that was the only reason why she was suggesting this. Because it was practical and for no other reason.

"But I want to be a gentleman and let you have it. I don't mind sleeping on the ground." Zuko offered as he pointed at a random bit of ground as if it held the way out of this predicament. Katara stared at it for a second. The ground offered no solution.

"Gentleman, schmentleman. I don't need this sexist double standard! I have just as much right to sleep on the ground as you do!" Katara stomped her foot. She knew she was being ridiculous, but she just hated the idea that she got preferential treatment just because she was a girl. Zuko appeared horrified at the direction that the conversation had taken and was bubbling some self-justifying _I'm not being sexist_ speech while making soothing motions with his arms, like he was trying to calm a wild animal. They were getting off topic.

"Look, it's just warmer this way, you goose! And it's better if we share." Zuko gave her a look. An unsure look, a disbelieving look, and a different sort of look that she couldn't quite decipher. Why was he being difficult about this? She was only thinking of him. Couldn't he see that? He could sleep in an uncomfortable position and then be in a rotten mood then next day. Katara didn't feel right about taking the only sleeping bag because she'd invited herself along

"I'm a restless sleeper. I might kick you." Zuko said apologetically while blushing furiously.

"I'll just kick you right back and we'll be even." Katara offered. She thought it was a simple solution to a simple problem, but Zuko didn't seem satisfied.

"No. Then we'll both be awake and covered in bruises and no one will get any sleep." He said. He was being ridiculous. Sharing was no big deal and he was making a big deal out of it and if he kept making a big deal out of it, then things would become awkward.

"What's so horrible about sharing with me?" Katara asked boldly. That shut him up. For about two seconds. He looked flabbergasted and

"Nothing….nothing, it would be nice but…."

"No buts, just hop in!" Katara said, satisfied that she had convinced him. There was a few seconds pause before she got in the sleeping bag and an even longer pause before Zuko joined her. There were too many limbs for one sleeping bag.

"Just stay on your side of the bag okay." Katara said sleepily into Zuko's shoulder.

"I'm trying to." Zuko said incredulously.

He tried to rearrange himself to accommodate her request but ended up getting their limbs even more tangled in his attempts to roll over. They extricated all their limbs and looked at each other sheepishly.

"Goodnight Zuko."

"Goodnight Katara"

0o0o0o0

Katara was being insistent and Zuko knew that it was better to go along with an insistent Katara. There was no point in arguing with her. She'd always get her own way eventually. The sleeping bag could fit two, if both people lay perfectly still and neither were fussy about their personal space. Zuko was fussy about his personal space. Zuko liked his personal space. And now Katara had totally invaded his space and Zuko had never been so close to another person for such a prolonged period of time. Everything was touching. Everything was pressing against something else. Katara was shuffling beside him and now her _something_ was pressing against his…they needed a new bag and quickly!

What was the proper etiquette for sharing a sleeping bag? He didn't want to do anything to offend her. He knew when two people normally shared sleeping quarters it meant _they were only after one thing. _ Goodness did Katara want the _one thing_ from him. No. She probably didn't want either of them to get cold. He shouldn't read too much into this. If he read too much into this and then it turned out Katara wasn't after the _one thing _this would be weird and awkward between them and he liked having her as a friend too much. She was too pretty for him besides. And there was Aang. Though Katara didn't seem to keen on him. She definitely didn't want the _one thing_ from Aang.

The best thing to do in this situation was just stay on his side of the bag and think about other things and not Katara's _somethings. _This was really hard because the_ somethings_ were right there, distracting him.

Focus Zuko!

Focus on anything else!

New bag! Yes, they would have to go into town and get more supplies. Now that Katara had come along, she'd need a change of clothes and they'd have to get more food and send a messenger hawk to let everybody at the palace know where she was. Not that they'd shared a sleeping bag. He wouldn't tell anyone that. He'd get a nice jacket for her too because he didn't want her getting cold. Dragon berries were in season and he knew she was partial to them, so they could get lots of those. Maybe a new water skin as well, because he noticed that she only brought her small one and you never knew…

While he was thinking these thoughts Zuko drifted into a deep and dreamless sleep. It was the first time he didn't have a single nightmare in months. Rather than thrashing and kicking in his sleep like he normally did, he slept peacefully. He drowsily nearly woke up when an arm curled around him. He noticed that an arm had come around his torso and was holding him tight. The arm was friendly. He gave the hand at the end of the arm a sleepy squeeze and went back to sleep.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Katara was restless. She rolled around a little to face Zuko. He was sound asleep and breathing softly. And drooling lightly. It was adorable she thought a little wistfully. Snap out of it. Katara mentally shook herself. What was wrong with her? Finding drool adorable?

She always felt more awake at night. She'd lain in the sleeping bag and stared at the stars for a long time after Zuko had drifted off to sleep. Then staring at the stars had changed to staring at Zuko. Not in a weird way. Just in a….because of….whatever! Katara could stare if she wanted. She didn't have justify herself to Toph out here. If Toph was here she'd be dancing with glee and would tease her forever. But she wasn't here.

She rarely got the opportunity to study his face so closely. Mostly because he had always been awake when they'd been interacting. It would be weird to get all up in someone's space like this when both people were awake. Zuko was sleeping peacefully. All the fight, all that tightly coiled energy, had gone out of him. Why couldn't he always be like this? She thought as she studied his face.

He really was quite handsome, even with the scar. But he didn't seem to know it. He was so self-conscious about it. She wondered what he'd look like without it. She was a master waterbender now; she might be able to heal it. She could return to the North Pole and learn more healing from Yugoda. She probably wouldn't know him without the scar. It was such a part of him. Maybe she'd ask him again one day.

She hadn't slept this close to somebody since she and Sokka were really little kids. They'd huddle together in winter for warmth and slept top to tail, piled high with blankets. Katara would have Sokka's manky feet in her face all night. Zuko didn't have manky feet, or maybe he did but they weren't an issue now. And he was warm. Maybe because he was a firebender, he always felt warm to her. Katara was little chilly and there was an obvious solution. She'd made him promise to stay on his side of the bag but he hadn't said anything about staying on hers. He rolled over again and Katara gave into the urge she felt and cuddled up to him, wrapping an arm around his torso. Better. Now she was warmer.

Would this be weird in the morning? Did other friends cuddle like this? In such a …friendly way. Zuko seemed the rouse a little, but he gave her hand a squeeze and nestled back down to sleep. _It's only a friendly squeeze_, Katara reasoned to herself. Because they were just friends. Friends who sometimes snuggled. And there was nothing weird about that. She would never tell Toph about this, she thought as she drifted off to sleep.

Much later, just as the first hint of sunlight peeked over the horizon, she felt Zuko move. She didn't want to get up. She didn't want him to get up but he was going to anyway. He always got up with the sunrise. Well Katara fancied a sleep in! She made a small noise of protest. Just five more minutes. She felt strong hands tucking the sleeping bag tighter around her and she thought that she felt his fingers gently brushing her hair loopies back from her face. There was a brief pause and then he was gone.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Zuko shook himself as he finished the firebending forms he'd been practicing. He liked to practice every morning and this morning he felt the need especially strongly. He'd had so much extra, pent-up, frustrated energy! He was just full of all these feelings and all this energy and he had to get it out of his system somehow. His Uncle would look at him worriedly when he practiced like this on the boat. All fierce determination and foolishness.

This morning Zuko had pushed his body to its limits. He pushed to the point when he would feel sore all over. He wanted that physical sore feeling to push away all these other feelings that were invading his head. Good indigestion, Katara induced feelings filled his head. He wished he could smush them away to a place where they wouldn't distract him anymore.

He'd woken up to her, all wrapped around him like some determined cuddly pentapus. It had been nice. To wake up with her and look at her sleeping face and just to imagine….He gotten up so carefully because he didn't want to wake her and had tucked the sleeping bag around her so she wouldn't get cold. She'd made a little adorable noise and had gone back to sleep. Zuko would never know what possessed him, but he brushed her hair loopy back from her face. She'd looked so beautiful in that moment, in the morning sun, that it briefly took his breath away. He stared at her for what felt like hours but was probably only a few moments. Had she always been this beautiful?

He knew he had about two hours before Katara got up. She liked a sleep-in but he didn't want her to wake up alone. He'd be back before that. Two hours to shake this feeling. He got up and stalked away to do exercises. He began mentally berating himself. His mental pep talk had lasted all morning. Variations on _you stupid idiot _played though his mind.

So he fancied her. Okay. He could admit it to himself. But he knew she didn't feel the same way. How could she? With his face and his temper and everything he'd done to her before? But… she'd been able to forgive him all that. She was his friend now. He liked having her as a friend. As a friendly friend who cuddled him and drove him crazy and gave him good indigestion. He shouldn't want more. To cuddle with her and brush her hair back and just hope was brainless. Foolish. Moronic. Crazy.

Zuko was an _idiot._

His brain kept wandering to places it wasn't meant to go. During his whole mental pep talk and grueling training session, his rogue brain kept getting distracted with these thoughts. Thoughts that it shouldn't think. Thoughts like how nice Katara smelled and how soft her skin was and how nice it felt to have her sleep against him and how he'd nearly touch her br….

Focus Zuko.

Zuko just needed a cold shower.

A million cold showers.

He'd have a cold shower and wash last night and this morning off. He'd stop thinking these thoughts and everything would be fine. He walked in the direction of the waterfall.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0  
Katara was awake. She was just lying in the sleeping bag and thinking and it was doing her no good. She should do something practical. Not lying about and moping when there were chores to be done. She could make breakfast and pack up the camp. Yes that's what she'd do.

She knew Zuko would probably be off training. He always did in the mornings. She normally watched the end part of his training when he and Aang drilled fire bending forms. Maybe she could find him and…No! bad idea. She didn't even have watching Aang as an excuse for her observing. She was pretty sure that if she went to watch today she would be crossing the line from observing to just plain old perving. Especially after last night. Okay so maybe Katara had gotten a little handsy when she was trying to get warm, but now she knew how firm all his muscles were and how he…..

Breakfast Katara!

She mentally shook herself. Then got up and stretched. She rolled up the sleeping bag a little sadly. It was a nice sleeping bag. She collected a bit of kindling to make a fire but figured she'd wait till Zuko got back to light it. She went though Zuko's pack to see what sort of supplies he had brought. A small pot for boiling water and making tea, tea and fireflakes. That was all he brought. Tea and fireflakes? Oh he would be in trouble when he got back. How many times had Katara told him that he needed a balanced diet and start the day on a good healthy meal! You couldn't have fireflakes for breakfast. It was just wrong. It wasn't a breakfast food.

Since it was all they had, she laid it out and waited. Then she quickly got bored with waiting. She could here the sounds of a waterfall in the background. Maybe she could go and get some water for tea and refill her bending skin (it was her smaller one which was a bit of a bummer. She'd been in such a rush when she left.) Yes that was a good idea. She'd find the waterfall and fill these up and wash herself. Maybe she'd put some flowers in her hair like those minstrels had. She felt like looking pretty this morning. She walked towards the sound of the water and in no time she found the waterfall. There was a bit of splashing.

It was Zuko and he was…_Oh my!_


	5. naked waterfalls

_The universe hated him. _

_It was official._

Or it just enjoyed laugh its arse off at him.

He'd heard a gasp and turned around and saw Katara. A water skin and a pot lay at her feet and she'd put both her hands on her face. Not to cover her eyes, but her cheeks which were going bright red. Zuko ducked as quickly as he'd ever done. Till just his shoulders were coming out of the water. He radiated embarrassment. If it was possible to heat water with embarrassment alone, this whole pool would be steaming. His life was just one embarrassing incident after another. She'd seen everything! He would die of embarrassment. He would never leave the waterfall again. He'd just stay here half submerged and never leave.

"What are you doing here. I thought you were asleep?" he asked in a voice that was a few octaves higher than his normal voice. Katara stared at him for a sec as if she hadn't properly heard him. She stared for a little bit longer than Zuko thought was strictly necessary and then appeared to shake herself and replied.

"I woke up, I was getting water to make tea and I was going to have a swim." She said gesturing at the fallen water gathering implements.

"Oh" Zuko didn't really have anything else to say to that. He wished there was a way of skipping to 5 minutes in the past. He would go back to his past self and say _Put some pants on! Now!_ This was a predicament. He'd come here for a cold-shower and to de-Katara his brain and here she was. Again. He turned back to look at her and noticed, with a feeling that was mostly dawning dread and the smallest part incredible joy, that she'd started taking her clothes off too. What was this? Was this a magical, nudity inducing waterfall?

"W..wait! what are you doing?" Zuko stammered. Now, he'd never be able to dislodge the image of Katara elegantly taking off her dress from his brain.

"Having a swim! Obviously." Katara said as she flicked off her arm bands. She was wearing that white thing that she always wore when she went swimming. What was that thing? Did she wear it all the time just incase she ran into nudity inducing waterfalls. It seemed very unfair that he would have to be naked when she got the white thing. He hated that white thing ever so slightly.

"Can you pass me my pants then?" Zuko asked as she started to walk into the water. He'd been wearing shorts that could double as swimming trunks for his workout. Why didn't he think of that BEFORE he took them off? She sighed and looked a little…was that a _disappointed look_? No, he must've imagined it.

"Don't be so embarrassed." She said with a smile as she brought them over. "Your body's not that special!" she added a little sardonically before she splashed away. Zuko felt a little less embarrassed in the face of her easy going attitude. She wasn't very modest when it came to swimming. He'd seen her whip out the white thing at the smallest puddle, and push everyone in the water at the smallest provocation. He struggled into the shorts under water. It was much harder than he thought. To put these on underwater required skill. He looked over at Katara. She was such a graceful swimming and she was swimming in a big circle around him. The white thing was clinging to her body and that body looked fabulous. Zuko's own body responded. Stiffly.

Oh hell!

Zuko couldn't catch a break. This had been his problem this morning, after she'd been all snuggly. But at least this morning he'd been able to leave before she'd woken up and noticed. She'd definitely notice now. He thought of the least sexy things he could thing of. Haru's Mustache. Maggots. His uncle's nasty underpants. He concentrated on the cold water.

There. Better.

Katara smiled at him and beckoned him over. Zuko paused. The chance of him embarrassing himself forever increased exponentially with the amount of time he spent wet and half dressed with her. That's the solution. He could just leave. Just go. No embarrassment at all. And then she could have a swim and be all _glistening_ in peace and Zuko could concentrate on _not_ thinking about her glistening in peace. Everybody wins!

"Where are you going?" Katara said as she swam up to him.

"Letting you have a swim?" Zuko said but unfortunately he raised his voice at the end so it sounded like a question. Zuko didn't know where he was going. Just away. Away from this naked waterfall and glistening water benders.

"I'd like you to stay. It's more fun with two." Katara said with such a cheeky smile. Zuko knew he was going to stay even as the more sensible part of his brain said _nnnnnoooooo retreat retreat!._ Zuko couldn't resist that smile. She sent a wave that sploshed him back into the deeper water with her.

"C'mon when was the last time you just relaxed and had fun." Katara said as she tried to tickle him under water. Was she trying to_ play_ with him? Zuko'd never really _played_ as a child. Was that what this was?

"I never just relax and have fun." Zuko said flatly.

"No time like the present!" Katara replied brightly as she tried to tickle him once more.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Naked.

Naked. Naked. Naked. Katara's brain was full of naked! The nudity had fried her brain and now it was just trapped on a never ending loop of _Welly well well then _and_ so that's what he looks like naked. _At some point she must have made a noise, a gasp of surprise at the nudity. She definitely dropped the pot and the water skin in surprise. Zuko whirled around and saw her and blushed scarlet and ducked under the water. The naked was gone. Zuko had obviously said something. And she was obviously meant to respond. She hadn't been paying attention, on account of the naked. It was distracting. Did he always swim naked? She was thinking naked thoughts. Wait! She shouldn't be thinking naked thoughts. She should be answering something.

She felt like she should explain herself in a way that made it sound like she wasn't a complete pervert. A pervert who had seen everything and _liked it_, if this pervert was to be completely honest with herself. No, that was not the right thing to say.

"I woke up, I was getting water to make tea and I was going to have a swim." She even had water gather implements to prove it. She pointed to them. Ha! She wasn't a pervet! Just a surprised water gatherer. And then there was a lull in the conversation. An awkward sort of lull that happened when one person was naked and wet and the other person was dry and clothed. She wanted to smooth over this moment and make it less awkward and the first thing that came into her mind was to even them up on that score. She started taking off her fire-nation dress. She'd come for a swim anyway and a swim was always more fun when you had someone else to play with in the water. Zuko seemed startled by this sudden development. His eyes were the size of saucers and he wanted his pants. Boo.

No brain! Not boo! A perfectly reasonable request. She thought it was ironic that after all her observing of his training sessions, the one morning she deliberately tried not to _observe_ Zuko she ended up seeing everything. Everything. She brought his pants to him and averted her gaze politely. He had blushed bright red and looked so embarrassed. Katara just wanted to hug him and tell him he had nothing to be embarrassed about. At all. Really. But she had a feeling that getting touchy feely now wouldn't have a calming effect on Zuko. She had no idea he was so shy. He always seemed so confident.

"Don't be embarrassed" she said in what she thought was a soothing tone as she looked the other way. Sokka always said that sarcasm made any situation better. Maybe if she made a sarcastic joke and made it sound like she saw naked people all the time and it was no big deal. "Your body's not that special!" she added while her inner pervert said _Liar!_ Toph was right. She was a pervy pervy pervert from perve-town in perve-mania when it came to Zuko. The urge to look again was getting stronger. Katara dived away from him to prevent herself from looking.

What was wrong with her lately? She'd been alone with Zuko for one night and she'd turned into a cuddly, handsy pervert with naked on the brain. She would swim it off, which was like shaking it off, but involved water. She swam for a bit. Oh how she loved the water. She splashed and kicked and twirled in circles around him.

He made a half hearted attempt to leave but she managed to convince him to stay and play with her. Katara was so wily. Swimming on her own? What fun would that be? She tickled him underwater which erupted into the great splash battle! Katara won of course.

It became apparent that Zuko knew no water games at all. Which wasn't surprising, being from the fire nation, but still kind of sad. He told her, a little shyly, that he never really played as a kid. He'd never played Mango Polu, He'd never had a standing on his head under water competition. Never duck dived.

She introduced him to all these water games that she and Sokka used to play. Katara won all of these, naturally. They had a competition to see who could hold their breath for the longest, which surprisingly, Zuko won. His win made him pretty pleased with himself. It made him smile so widely and say "Ha, _in your face _water bender!" another splash battle erupted, but secretly Katara was happy to see him enjoying himself for once. Even if he was a sore winner. They jumped from the larger rocks into the deepest part of the pool. Zuko jumped with two feet together but Katara favoured the cannon ball.

There was a moment, just before she jumped from the highest rock, when she looked at Zuko and he looked at her and _smiled._ Her stomach lurched and she felt like she was already falling. They were both a little nervous. This was the highest rock yet. The water seemed so far away beneath them. There was only one solution.

"On the count of three!"

They jumped together.


	6. shopping! oh Calamity

**Authors note: huge thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited and PM'd. Ohmygoodness! I didn't think anyone would read this and just thanks you guys! Feedback is like chocolate. I really really like it and appreciate it! **

**This is a rather frighteningly long chapter in which our gallant heroes go shopping and then I promise we'll get to the questing. I am thinking of changing the title to "Good Indigestion" permanently. **

**I'm not sure if this is useful, but when I was writing the parts with Petal and Big Donut (you'll know them when you see them) I imagined them speaking with super chav london accents. I don't know why, but I think it just reads better if you imagine the chav too.**

**Once again, this is unbeta'd- but I'm getting better at using grammar-check. Still if you notice any whoopses –just let me know. **

Katara had bended the water out of their clothes and they made their way back to the campsite. Zuko had fun! It was such a new experience for him. It was great! Competitions that weren't brutal, games that had no educational value, fun in general, hadn't been a big part of his childhood. And that feeling he got from jumping off those high rocks! He'd been scared, but exhilarated. He was almost sorry it had to end but they were both really hungry. Katara was right he had been too long since he'd relaxed and had fun. He couldn't even remember the last time.

It was nearly lunch time when they got back to camp. The sun was high in the sky. It was a perfect warm autumn day. Typical weather for this time of year in the firenation was warm days and icy nights. It was a good thing they'd gone questing when they did. If they'd left it any later it would've been too later for swimming. He lit the fire and Katara had brought some water to make tea. She gave the bowl of fireflakes he handed her an unhappy look. If it were possible, the disdain in her gaze would have made the fireflakes shriveled up even more in shame.

She then had given him a small, well intention lecture about the benefits of a balanced diet, the many evils of fireflakes and how they were not a breakfast food. She thought that she should be in charge of the shopping when they went into the nearest town to pick up supplies. There had been a small scuffle over that on the way into way to town. Zuko thought he was more than capable of choosing vegetables. Katara disagreed. Not at all respectfully either.

The town was a small and bustling village nestled in the mountains. It was far enough away from the capital to feel a little rural with a few paddocks and fields spread out around the town on the outskirts. Zuko mussied up his fringe so it would cover his scar better and took a deep breath. There was a main street with a hawkery, a fruit market and a thank-the-spirits a shop that looked like it would have camping goods. They could certainly get another sleeping bag there. There were a few other miscellaneous shops. He wondered if Katara would want to check those out. If she was the sort of girl who just_ loved_ shopping like Ty Lee. First thing they would have to do would be to send out messenger hawks. Otherwise everyone at the palace would go off their nut with worry about Katara being missing.

Zuko and Katara went into the Hawkery together and a tall, thin lady bustled over to them. "And what can I do for such a lovely young couple today?" She asked kindly. "Oh she's not my girlfriend/He's not my boyfriend" Zuko and Katara said simultaneously, as if by reflex. People mistook them for boyfriend and girlfriend fairly frequently and they knew their answer by instinct now.

"My mistake." The tall thin lady said with one eyebrow raised so high it could climb off her face.

"No problem, We'll just need two hawks and a few sheets of paper." Zuko answered. Tall n' thin fussed about behind the counter and presented them with the paper and explained how to attach it to the hawk. Katara eyed her hawk warily. He thought about just sending one group message, so Katara wouldn't have to worry about message attaching. No, she'd be mad. Katara liked to do things for herself and she could write her own messages in her own way. He passed her most of the paper and started writing his brief missive.

**Dear Uncle. **

**I may take a little longer than my estimated three days to find the oracle. Katara's with me now and she'll slow me down big time. Tell the others I'll look after her. I won't let anything happen to her and I don't want them to worry. Don't let Aang slack off with his firebending training. **

He paused here and wondered how to sign off this letter before deciding on:

**Love **

**Zuko. **

He attached his message to the hawk and turned and looked at Katara and felt a bit guilty about saying that she'd slow them down. Really, he was happier than he thought possible that she'd come along. But she was taking her sweet time writing her messages. He gave the Hawker enough money for both their hawks and walked over to her and she gave him a funny look, head tilted on the side, mouth slightly open. Zuko was feeling self-conscious all over again and he mussied up his fringe. He wandered over to Katara. She covered what she was writing quickly with her hand.

"I'm just heading over the road" he said as he gestured at the camping store opposite.

"Are you sending that hawk to the Palace?" She asked still giving the hawk the stink eye.

"Yes." Zuko answered.

"Um, could I attach my message to Sokka to yours, I still have another one to write with this one." She said with a nod at her hawk.

"Sure, I'll just tether him again." Zuko offered. Zuko paused for a second and wanted to know what the second message was. Who else was she writing too? Nearly everyone she knew was at the palace at the moment. Rather horrifyingly, his uncle and her father had gotten a bit drunk on sake together and had declared themselves bessh frends and Hakoda had stayed to help with peace negotiations. He was lingering, lingering big time.

"Oh , don't be so nosy." Katara said with a little wave of her hand. He was being nosy! Out of the two of them, Zuko was sure he wasn't the nosy one. Thankfully he thought better of saying this. "I'll meet you over there in five minutes." Katara added and turned back to her letter.

A Katara five minutes was evidently much longer than a Zuko five minutes. Zuko hade been wandered up and down the aisle at the camping store for what felt like years. He was perplexed by all the choice before him. Maybe Katara would be a better shopper/sleeping bag chooser. But then he'd have to wait for her to finish writing and god knows when that would happen. He kind of wanted them to at least make it to the mystical bridge by tomorrow, but at this pace, with constant breaks for meals and swimming, they would never get to the actual questing part of this quest. Besides Zuko had faced his father and Azula and Dragons. He could face shopping!

The waterskin was easy. He picked the big blue one that had some sort of decoration on the left hand side. He was sure Katara would like it. It was blue, which had to be her favourite colour from the amount of blues she wore. It was pretty. It was functional. The wall of sleeping bags presented a challenge. Did he want to get one lined in koala sheep wool? Would it be bad if he didn't? What was the difference between waterproof and water-resistant anyway? Should he get a blue one to match the water skin. Gah! Zuko didn't know. He ended up picking the blue, lined, water-resistant one. Katara moseyed over after what felt like an age, looking slightly pale.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Oh, Well maybe I can cheer you up. I got you a present." Zuko said and suddenly felt a little shy. What if she hated them? Well he had to give them to her now that he'd said he'd got her a present. She was looking at him curiously and he thrust the sleeping bag and water skin at her.

"Igottheseforyou." He saw a strange look pass over her face. Oh no. he'd done the wrong thing. She hated them and she'd think he presumed too much buying them for her and then she'd be angry and somehow the conversation would turn to sexism and Zuko would be in the wrong again. Arguing with Katara was like fighting with an exceptionally agile moose lion. You couldn't win. Her brain moved in complicated and unexpected ways. And argument that started out about fireflakes could turn into something different at the blink of an eye. _Be that as it may, Zuko, Why did you leave your pack open last night? That could've attracted any sort of animal to our campsite!_ Zuko couldn't compete with that. He didn't even see arguments like that coming. He was still stuck in a conversation about the fireflakes. He always ended up in the wrong and not entirely sure how he got there.

"But if you hate them we can take them back and you can choose your own but I just thought if you were going to coming with me it would be better if you had your own sleeping bag because it got kind of squashy last night. And I thought you might need a bigger water skin because I noticed that you only brought your smaller one and you never know…" Zuko babbled quickly by way of explanation. Katara held up a hand to stop his flow of words.

"I'm not mad Zuko." Phew.

"Then why did you make that face?" Zuko asked, perplexed. He had definitely seen a face.

"Well I was just thinking that this is top quality stuff. It must have been expensive." Katara explained with a little gesture at the offending sleeping bag and water skin which Zuko still held. Oh it was about money! Money was no big deal to him now. Zuko had more money than he knew what to do with now that he firelord, but he knew that Katara and Sokka had come from less affluent circumstances. He wanted to put her at ease without sounding crass.

"I just wanted to get really nice ones for you." He said softly as he held them out. Katara smiled softly back at him and took the sleeping bag and water skin and looked them over. "I would have picked the same ones myself" she said as she gave him a big hug dropping the very expensive sleeping bag and water skin at the ground at their feet. It was a nice hug. Zuko didn't have much experience with hugs, but he liked Katara's. She was a bit shorter than him and he could rest his chin on the top of her head. The hug went on for a bit longer than friendly hugs normally did. How long did hugs normally take? Zuko didn't have many for comparison, but this was definitely a long hug. Finally Katara stepped away, and picked up the fallen goods and dusted them off.

"Thank you Zuko." She said brightly. "This is actually really sweet."

She looked up and him and smiled. He looked down at her and smiled and they were in the middle of another moment. Would she hug him again? They were standing across from eachother in silence. It was like that moment back on the path, but this time Zuko wouldn't ruin it by speaking. He probably couldn't speak anyway. Zuko's heart skipped a beat and all words left his brain. He should say something but he didn't know what. His eyes were focused on Katara's mouth, which was moving… Because she was speaking. And he should be listening! Oh no! Say the first bit again! Evidently she wasn't afflicted by moment-speechlessness. She was listing all the things they still should get before embarking on the quest. Zuko nodded along like he'd been listening the whole time. And the moment was gone.

They went to the ladies clothing store and Katara tried on possibly a million outfits. And asked for Zuko's opinion on most of them. She got a bit frustrated when his opinion only consisted of "umm you look nice." Well she did. What else was he expected to say? He'd never tell her she looked bad. That would be a recipe for disaster. Zuko didn't know much about ladies, but he knew that! Besides she looked nice in everything. The clothes were irrelevant to Zuko. Eventually she pick a pair of pants that look like a skirt but aren't -isn't? Whatever. It looked nice on her. She also got a halter top and nice jacket which also looked nice on her.

"Oh it's nice of your boyfriend to buy you a whole new outfit lovey" The shop lady said as she rung it all up.

"Oh he's not my boyfriend." Katara said easily with no vitriol in her voice at all. Zuko could remember a time when she would shout his non-boyfriend status and add a little stamp of her foot.

"Yeah, we're just friends" Zuko added.

"mmmmhhhhh If you say so." Shop lady said disbelievingly and gave them a perplexed look.

From there they went to the market and Katara filled up a basket of what she deemed 'nutritious'. Zuko noticed a little sadly that fireflakes did not make the cut. Zuko hated shopping. He hated the market. He smushed his fringe over his scar again but to no avail. Five people had already visibly recoiled at his scar. Three people had asked how he got it. One horrifyingly bold melon merchant asked if she could touch it. No…just no.

He was trying to be mellow about his scar. He really was. His Uncle told him that he should stop being so self-conscious, in his roundabout uncle way. But it was still easier said than done. He turned away from Miss Melons to compose himself so he could politely refuse her.

Katara, on his left, suddenly let fly a barrage of angry words at Miss Melons, which included several choice phrases that Zuko didn't even know that she knew. She was in full on angry Katara mode complete with hand gestures. Miss Melons wouldn't ever do that again. Miss Melons might never speak again. It was jarring not to be on the receiving of one of her angry speeches. After she'd gotten _all sassy_ with melon merchant they beat a hasty retreat. She'd grabbed his arm and had given him this really fond look. "Let's get out of here! This market is terrible." Thank goodness! Zuko couldn't have said it any better himself.

Katara stared at the parchment in front of her and started crossing out again. She was trying to write to Sokka to let him know where she was but everything just kept coming out wrong. The wrong words kept just flowing out.

"**Dear Sokka**

**Don't worry! I've ****run away with Zu, ****gone on a quest with Zuko. It's been really great fun so far. Zuko's been ****shirtless, sexy, naked, great for snuggling**** really nice. We've ****snuggled, flirted, tickled each other**** gone swimming together and now we're stocking up for the quest. I've seen ****Zuko naked and it was awesome **** a different side to Zuko. He actually smiled. I reckon by the end of the quest I can get him to laugh. **

At this point, Zuko wandered over and she hastily covered her parchment with her hand. She didn't want him to know that she'd been thinking about him naked. Again. He tethered the hawk and told Katara he'd be going over the road. Katara still need a bit of time to re-word this message. Obviously this was a rough draft.

**Not sure how long that will take, ****I'm allowing extra time for more snuggling and swimming.**** Maybe a few days. Zuko's in a bit of a hurry to get started on the actual Questing. **

**See ya soon.**

**Love Katara.**

**P.S. give my love to the others.**

**P.S. If you read this to Toph tell her to stop laughing. I know she is. **

She re-wrote the message without crossing out and looked at it. It was satisfactory. It didn't mention nakedness once. Katara wondered briefly if she should write to Aang to explain. Explain what? That she loved him but he didn't give her the good indigestion feeling? That she'd seen Zuko naked and it had turned her brain to mush? Nah. Sokka would tell him where she was. She didn't need to explain herself to him. Besides it would be better to do it in person than in a letter. While she was writing her second message another customer came into the hawkery.

"Was that Prince Zuko I saw just leaving now then?" asked a small plump woman as she came to the front counter. Katara looked up in surprise, assuming the woman was talking to her, but she was actually addressing the tall and thin hawker behind the counter.

"Prince Zuko in my shop? Not likely." The hawker scoffed "I got a really good look when he was paying and his scar's on the wrong side" she added conspiratorially before turning to small and plump. "What can I do for you then petal?"

"Just a hawk to send to Ember Island, and three sheets of paper please." Petal answer. Tall and skinny handed over the paper and ink and she leant over and started writing. They started gossiping good naturedly while she wrote. Not that Katara was eavesdropping, or curious, or anything. She could just hear what they were saying is all.

"It was him, I swear, I'd know that face anywhere, even with the terrible scar. Poor lad." Petal added as she began scribbling.

"Oh you'd know him from your intimate acquaintance then, often having tea in the palace are we Pet?" tall n' thin said sarcastically. The two were obviously friends from the gentle way Petal poked her in retaliation.

"I used to work there you big donut. Remember. Back when Ozai was still in power." Petal said as if she was speaking to a five year old with a short attention span.

"Oh yeah, I forgot!" Big donut said slapping her forehead. "So what's our new firelord like then, Oh Loyal Servant?" She asked with a little curtsey.

"Oh he was only a kid when I worked there…. a shy and quite child really, never gave me or the other chambermaids any trouble… Not like that sister of his." Petal and big donut both suppressed a shudder. Azula's short reign had been…eventful, to say the least. Petal paused before adding softly "He was a sweet kid, Sometimes I'd just want to hug him like he was one of me own. But I imagine he'd have been a bit too proud and too stiff for hugging."

"I never asked you why did you leave? 'S good job at the palace and all that." Big donut asked

"Got fired I did." Petal said a little crossly. Big donut made a sad face.

"Yeah, lovely general Iroh, handsomest man in the world if I do say so myself" Petal said and here both ladies paused, sighed and looked off into the distance. Were they thinking about Uncle with that mopey look on their faces? Petal seemed a bit lost in reverie before she finished her sad firing story.

"Anyway, general Iroh (sigh) comes back and ol' Ozai gets a bee in his bonnet because he thinks all the servants like Iroh better and are being disloyal and whatever else. Which was true. I mean it was general Iroh (longer sigh). So he fired most of us. I was first to go because I'd never been too subtle." Petal finished with a particularly violent flourish of her pen.

"Ooh that's dreadful Pet" big donut said gently.

"Nah, It's fine. Over it now I am. I was a crap servant anyway." Petal said with an attempt at sounding light and airy.

"Sounds like, what with wanting to hug random royalty." Big donut sallied back jokingly.

"Not random royalty. I would never dare hug Azula!" here Petal and Big Donut shuddered again in unison.

"What about Iroh, the handsomest man in the world?" Big donut asked with a decidedly cheeky wink.

"Oh I'd do more than hug him…" Petal replied with an equally mischievous glint. The conversation quickly devolved into something quite rude. Oh goodness gracious! It was terribly rude.

Eeeeewwww

Katara tried to shut out their conversation. These ladies were such perverts. It was Uncle Iroh. Still she heard strains of "He could fill my cup of tea!" hardy hardy har har. "He could steep my leaves any day!" suddenly without warning, a horrifying mental image had replaced the naked! She concentrated on her second message like it was the most important thing in the world, to drown out the strains of Petal's latest story which had started with "I walked in on him once, in the bath, accidentally…"

**Dear healer Yugoda**

**Is it possible to get indigestion from another person and not from a food item? I'm travelling with this boy at the moment and lately whenever we are in close proximity I get a feeling like indigestion in my stomach. It's not really bad indigestion but good indigestion. It is especially severe when he smiles or is shirtless. What is the best treatment for this? I worry that it is contagious.**

**Any advice you can give will be appreciated.**

**Sincerely**

**Katara. **

Katara looked at both her notes and was satisfied. She folded her message to Sokka in Zuko's envelop and attached it to the hawk going to the palace and addressed the other one to Healer Yugoda. She waited till Big donut and Pet paused in their ribald conversation, which took ages. Damnit how many dirty puns could two cheeky women come up with. Eventually Big Donut noticed her and took the Hawks to the back for releasing. She walked out of the hawker as quickly as she could, trying to clear her mind of the choice image that was contained in Petal's latest story about how this one time, Iroh bent over…." Gah she was thinking it again. It must have showed on her face because Zuko got up quickly from where he was sitting in front of the shop. "Are you okay?" he asked concerned.

"I'll tell you later." Katara said as she tried to push the mental image away. She'd tell him never. It would scar him for life and he'd never be able to look at his uncle (handsomest man in the world) the same way again.

"Oh, Well maybe I can cheer you up. I got you a present." Zuko offered and then looked away a little shyly before he pulled a bundle from behind his back and thrust it at her. "Igottheseforyou." He said quickly like it was all one word.

Katara gasped in surprise. It was a new water skin. Yay! And another sleeping bag. Boo! No brain. Not boo! A very thoughtful gift. They were top quality items. They would have been expensive. And Zuko had just got them for her like it was nothing. Just because she'd need them. He was babbling so sort of apology and saying that she could take them back if she hated them. Zuko babbled when he was nervous. She held up a hand to stop further word vomit.

"I'm not mad Zuko." She said gently. He looked so relieved it was almost comical. "Well I was just thinking that this is top quality stuff. It must have been expensive." Katara explained. Zuko smiled softly at her and said in such a sincere voice that he just wanted to get nice ones. She was taken aback for a moment. She took the bag and the water skin and studied them. Beautiful stitching. Zuko was looking at her like he was waiting for her to do something. He looked so sincere and hopeful, like he only wanted to please her. She thought of what Petal had said about him being a sweet and quiet kid who never got enough hugs. She dropped the sleeping bag and waterskin and threw her arms around him with gusto. His arms came around her shoulders and he leaned his chin on the top of her head. She thought if Petal had ever tried, she wouldn't have found Zuko too proud and stiff for hugging. He was a good hugger really. Her face was pressed against his chest and she could smell his Zuko smell and feel his lean muscles. Mmm, this was nice.

Mmmmm, they'd probably been hugging for a bit too long now. Any longer and they'd cross from' hug territory' into 'embrace land.' Not that Katara wanted to embrace Zuko or anything, but if they stood like this any longer that's exactly what she'd be doing. Reluctantly she stepped away and picked up the fallen goods and dusted them off.

"Thank you Zuko." She said brightly. "This is actually really sweet." She said as she smiled at him. Really, he did have a nice face. Snap out of it! Now was not the time to be daydreaming about Zuko's nice face! They had shopping to do. Time to change the subject! She started listing all that they still needed to get and dragged Zuko into the nearest ladies clothing store.

Zuko was practically useless at clothes shopping. He just said everything looked nice and looked terrified when pestered for more opinions. Katara didn't want to look nice, she wanted to look good…no, She wanted to look pretty. Did he think she looked pretty? It was hard to tell. Zuko just looked like he was being slowly tortured with chiffon and too much choice. Eventually she decided on some purple skorts that seemed to be all the rage in the fire nation and a cute halter and a nice waisted jacket. The sales lady mistook them for a couple and gave Katara a very dubious look when they told her they were just friends. The look insinuated things. It was a very insinuating look. She looked between the two of them and insinuated some more. Katara knew what that face was insinuating. What was it with this town? Did they all have sex on the brain? Was it something in the water?

Well now they only had some food to get and the quest could begin. She could tell that Zuko was feeling a bit antsy to get on the road. She got them a range of healthy food that would keep. She noticed Zuko staring wistfully at the fireflakes stall. No fireflakes for you! Honestly didn't he know how bad they were for you? Katara only had his best interest at heart.

She noticed he smushed his fringe over his scar periodically at the market. He preferred going incognito around the firenation at the moment. Maybe that would change when he got more used to being firelord. But right now he didn't like to attract too much attention to himself. He didn't like the way his scar always attracted attention so he tried to hide it as best as possible. Katara could understand that. What she couldn't understand was how rude some of the stall vendors could be, staring at it and asking inappropriate questions. Honestly! Sometimes a quick, hurt, embarrassed look would cross over Zuko's face before he replied and Katara felt herself get a little angry on his behalf every time she saw it.

The last straw was when some floozy with these melons asked if she could touch it. Why the nerve of her! Didn't she know Zuko didn't like people to touch it? To Katara's knowledge, she was the only person who had touched it and it was going to stay that way! Katara's protective instinct was stronger than the sea and fiercer than a hurricane and it went into overdrive when she saw Zuko turn away from Miss Melons slightly before he could answer her. Well Katara knew what his answer would be and she let Miss Melons have it! She might have gone a bit overboard, gotten a bit too sassy, but she felt she'd made her point. When Katara had finished her little speech, Miss Melons was cowering behind her melons and there was a shocked silence over their little section of the market. People were staring. They'd made a scene. They had to leave immediately.

She grabbed Zuko by the arm and smiled at him fondly. She felt like saying "I got your back" but instead said "Let's get out of here! This market is terrible." And so they walked out of the town together in the direction of something that Zuko called Mystical Bridge. They were all stocked up and ready to go.

Let the quest begin!

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Back at the palace Iroh looked at two messages that had just arrived by messenger hawk. One wasn't addressed to him, it was true, but it was folded inside his Nephew's. He read the messages again and stifled a small chuckle. Contagious indeed!


	7. tea and gossip

"Contagious indeed!" Iroh chuckled as he moved his pink jasmine tile. Toph considered her next move. Iroh had this Pai Sho set especially made for her. It had carved stone pieces instead of flat tiles so she could 'see' them. They'd been playing together every day at their tea and gossip session and Toph was getting pretty good. Today Iroh was in an especially cheerful mood. So was Toph come to think of it. She'd laughed for a good ten minutes when Iroh first read Katara's letter to her. She'd told her! Oh yeah Sugar queen always saying that she was just _observing_, that Toph was getting too much sun, that Toph was imaging things, that Toph was crazy. Well crazy that Sugarqueen!

Toph knew what she sensed. She knew what it meant when Sugarqueen's heart skipped a beat whenever Sparky was around. She was blind but she could still see that. Iroh knew what it meant when Zuko looked at Katara with an especially dazed and soppy look. Toph couldn't see this look, but Iroh had described it too her and she concurred with his conclusion. They fancied each other. Everyone could see it. Even Toph. Even Aang, for goodness sake.

Aang was, after all, in possession of both a brain and eyes that worked. He'd figured out which way the wind was blowing. Toph knew that Katara and Zuko would be worried about hurting Aang's feelings. He hadn't been too subtle about his crush on Sweetness, but this was getting ridiculous. Toph and Iroh had united everyday to play Pai Sho, drink tea, gossip and to try and get two of the most stubborn people they knew to just …do something about it already!

"I used to be quite suave with the ladies, but I think this gene has skipped my Nephew entirely."Iroh lamented with a fond sigh. "For years I have been encouraging him to find a nice girl. Now there is one right in front of him. I just don't even know anymore. If she ever tried to kiss him he will probably just offer her a coupon for some free tea." Uncle said with exasperation.

" We can't blame Zuko entirely." Toph said diplomatically. After all Katara thought she could stare and sigh at Zuko's hot body everyday and just dismiss it as medical observation.

"Katara's equally as clueless, in her own special way." She added.

Iroh had gone with the subtle approach and tried to tell Zuko metaphorically that he knew what was going on. And that Zuko should do something about it while they were both still young. And how! Zuko had apparently gotten a bit confused about what Iroh was getting at when they talked. Iroh's tendency to talk in metaphors often had confusing side effects. He was being too subtle. Toph favoured the direct approach. She'd taken to cornering Sugarqueen after her daily "observation" as she called it.

"You're such a pervert! Always checking out Sparky. Why don't you just ask him out already." Toph sighed a little exasperated with her friend. She could feel through the ground that Katara was flabbergasted and doing a wide range of surprised and embarrassed movements. She then settled her stance and put her hands on her hips and said in a justifying tone of voice.

"I wasn't perving – I was observing—for medical reasons!"

"Right" Toph's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"I'm a healer Toph, that's the only reason why I have to watch him." Katara continued.

" Keep telling yourself that Sugarqueen. But I think it _means _something." Toph said as she turned to walk away.

" You've been getting too much sun Toph. you're just imagining things." Katara called out after her.

She and Iroh had lamented at their lack of progress for weeks. Katara and Zuko just couldn't get out of their own way and get it together. Iroh adopted less subtle tactics but Zuko seemed to willfully misunderstand him. Though what was so hard to misunderstand about _she's a pretty girl Zuko, I think she likes you_ with an accompanying suggestive eyebrow raise, Toph didn't know.

Katara had taken to ignoring Toph comments on the subject completely and would just tell Toph she was going crazy. She'd been even more stubborn than usual lately. Ever since Toph had suggest that Katara should, at a time when she and Zuko were all sitting close together and talking, (like they normally did at the dinner table- that meant something too) Katara should casually slip into conversation the fact that she'd like to have lots of sex and babies with him. Katara hadn't taken this suggestion too well. At all.

She and Iroh had contemplated the merits of just locking them in a room together and seeing what would happen, but they had decided against this idea. If only they had known that all it would take was getting Zuko to sneak out one night. Of course Katara would have to follow him and get all up in his business. It was what she did. That's how Katara rolled.

Why didn't they think of it before? She and Iroh failed at matchmaking. The dynamic duo had been gone one night(One Night!) and _voila! _Katara could admit Zuko gave her that good indigestion feeling. What would they be willing to admit tomorrow?

Toph moved her white lotus tile, which inevitably made Iroh sigh 'ah the White Lotus Gambit.'

'Your move.' She said with a smirk.


	8. a mooncrab and a penguin go camping

They'd made camp not far from what Zuko called _The Mystical Bridge_. They'd lain out their sleeping bags, head to head, equidistant from the fire. Katara had made a stew. They had talked about nothing much. Katara's stew was fabulous if Katara did say so herself. It had settled comfortably in her belly. She rolled around again in her new sleeping bag, trying to get comfy. It was a very good sleeping bag, but she'd kind of preferred Zuko's. Not that she'd say as much, obviously. She wouldn't want him getting the wrong impression. It just had really nice lining.

Right now they were comparing stars to pass the time. They lay with their heads nearly touching, feet pointing in opposite directions. Katara had an arm up and was trying to outline the great penguin for Zuko, but he was looking at it from an upside down angle. Zuko said the angle didn't matter much. He never knew how people could see dragons and platypus bears in the stars. They were just a bunch of bright dots to him and some of them were functional for navigating. Zuko had no imagination. Katara told him this. Even more challenging than Zuko's lack of imagination was that the Water tribe and the Firenation had different names for all the constellations, so it was all a bit confusing. She told Zuko she'd been born under the sign of the penguin and it was her favourite constellation because of this.

"What are Penguins like then?" he asked.

"Fabulous. Obviously" Katara said with a little gesture at herself.

Zuko snickered. What that nearly a laugh? She told Sokka she could get him to laugh by the end of the trip, but she didn't she'd achieve such an impossible feat tonight. She thought about his question before answering. She knew a bit about starsigns. Sokka didn't believe in them, but he was a Goatseal and a Goatseal would never believe in anything without solid proof. Katara thought the Penguin suited her.

"They're determined, loyal, passionate, protective... " She paused for a bit before adding, "and they are amazing cooks. They should be listened to more often. Because they are always right." She gave him a little nudge with her arm, which she'd draped near his shoulder, to emphasize her point. Zuko's life would be much easier if he listened to her more.

"You get all that from 'Penguin'?" Zuko asked sounding amused.

"What about you?" Katara asked

"Oh that's not the penguin to me. In the fire nation we call it the Scorpidillo." He said as he reached up and traced the penguin's wings with his finger. "To us, that's the scorpion tail of the Scorpidillo." Interesting. But not answering her question.

"Not what you call the penguin, you goose. What's you're sign?" Katara asked.

"Oh." Zuko thought for a sec. "I was born under the Oxmonkey. But I don't know what that would be in the water tribe."

"When is your birthday anyway?" Katara asked. It had never come up before.

"A few days after the autumn equinox." He said reluctantly.

"Zuko! That's really soon. Why didn't you tell any of us? We could've planned a party for you." Katara exclaimed. She loved her birthday and reminded Sokka of it constantly in the weeks leading up to it. So he'd have no excuse for forgetting.

"I didn't want a big fuss." Zuko said firmly. Katara knew Zuko didn't like being the centre of attention but this was his birthday.

"How about a small fuss?" she asked, poking him again.

"How about no fuss?" Zuko countered. "My family never really celebrated it much and I'm just not big into the whole birthday thing." He said a little testily, as if that was the final word of the subject. Geez, touchy. Katara thought "not being into the whole birthday thing" sound a bit like "not being into that thing called fun, that I know people have" but she didn't say that. She had a feeling that would result in a sulky Zuko. Katara decided to change the subject.

"It's the sign of the Mooncrab in the water tribe. It means you're caring, sensitive, proud." She said and then couldn't resist adding "And really, ridiculously moody." She poked him again. Really, his shoulder was the only part of him she could easily reach in this position, so it was more of a nudge than a poke. Zuko made a small noise of irritation before replying.

"In the firenation, it's the unluckiest sign to be born under because it's when the sun is turning away. The summer solstice is the luckiest. That's the sign of the Dragon. My Uncle and Azula are both Dragons." Zuko said still sounding a little…not grumpy, something else that Katara couldn't put her finger on.

"Well, it's not all bad to be a Mooncrab. In the watertribe, Mooncrabs and Penguins are meant to go really well together." Katara said lightly with a big grin.

"Really?" Zuko asked sounding interested.

"Really. We make a great team because the Penguin can get the Mooncrab to stop sulking." Katara gave him another little nudge and glanced over at him. Her eyes were in line with his mouth and she could see he was smiling slightly.

"Well in the firenation, the Mooncrab and the Penguin don't go well together at all. Because the Penguin is always poking the Mooncrab, always telling the Mooncrab what to do and never lets the Mooncrab have fireflakes." He said jokingly. Katara snorted and gave his hair a playful ruffle before rolling over. She was feeling tired. Time for sleep.

"The Mooncrab should stop his complaining." she said sleepily. Zuko stopped his complaining.

"We should get some sleep if we want to be ready for your _mystical bridge_ tomorrow Mooncrab." She said softly as she tried to get comfy in her new bag.

"It's not _my_ mystical bridge, it is _the _Mystical Bridge Penguin." Zuko corrected.

"Goodnight Zuko."

"Goodnight Katara. Sweet dreams."

"You too."

Katara woke up to the sound of a soft strangled cry and the sound of thrashing. It sounded like someone was strangling a baby rabbiroo she thought blearily as she rubbed her eyes and climbed out of her bag. No, it was Zuko. He was having a nightmare. A bad one. No wonder why he was worried about kicking her last night, if he normally slept so restlessy,

Katara practically leapt out of her sleeping bag and knelt beside him. She tried to shake him awake, gently at first and then more firmly. She started shouting his name to rouse him and suddenly his eyes shot open. His amber eyes appeared terrified and for a second he didn't appear to recognize her. Then he blink and let out a deep breathe.

"Katara?"

"Yes, it's me. You're okay. You were just having a bad dream." She said soothingly.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I woke you. I didn't mean to." Zuko looked around himself a little confused and sat up and shook his head a little as if he was trying to shake the dream off.

"No, it's okay." She said as she sat next to him on the ground. She looked at him, pale under the moonlight. Paler than normal, and that was pretty pale. Even for Zuko. "Are you okay?" she asked. Zuko took a deep breath before replying.

"It's just a dream. I'm almost used to it now." He said a little ruefully as he played with the edge of the sleeping bag with his fingers. So this has happened more than once. Katara paused, not wanting to pry. The Zuko she knew hated this sort of thing. Revealing weaknesses and conversations about feelings were not his strong suit, that was for sure. He hated anyone to see he had vulnerabilities. Still she couldn't stop herself from asking.

"How often?" she almost whispered. Zuko paused and for a while Katara thought he wasn't going to answer her but just stare moodily off into the distance all night.

"Nearly every night since Sozin's Comet." He said finally.

"You didn't have it last night when we were… sharing?" Katara was going to say _snuggling_, but stopped herself just in time. Their mutual snuggling was one big unacknowledged platypus bear at the campsite. They did not speak it's name.

"No, I didn't." Zuko answered simply.

There was a question that Katara wasn't asking. She wasn't asking it very loudly. She opted to stare at Zuko with what Sokka called her her _truth-bending stare_ and just thought the question really hard at him. She wanted to know, but she didn't want to ask. It would be to much of an imposition to just ask, but she reckoned if she stared at him long enough he'd tell her anyway.

"Look, it's just a bad dream. You shouldn't worry yourself about it. "Zuko started to say but Katara continued to stare. Zuko met her eyes and then threw his hands up in exasperation and made a little disgruntled noise. "Oh fine, if you must know!" He took a deep breath again before beginning.

"I'm at the Agni Kai area and I'm tied up somehow and I can't escape. Azula's laughing in the background somewhere but I can't see her. And I know my father is lurking in the shadows but I can't see him either. You're there and the whole gang is there. My uncle is there and he just looks at me like he hates me and he tells me how disappointed he is in me. He pours some coal dust on me and tells me my father was right about me and leaves. Then you and Toph and Aang and Sokka and Suki, you all start adding kindling around me and you say…" He paused for a second and didn't seem able to continue for a moment. "It doesn't matter, anyway you all leave me and then my mother comes over and she's holding a little flame in her hand and then she says she never loved me and then…." He gulped and Katara couldn't contain herself.

"Oh Zuko." She whispered. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to do to make it better. No one should have dreams like that.

Katara was going to have to move to the fire nation. That was the only solution she could see. She would move to the Firenation and stay close to him every night so she could wake him if he started dreaming it again. Because she certainly wouldn't let him dream like this again if she could help it. Katara felt a little sick to her stomach. Zuko dreamed this every night? Katara wasn't really prone to nightmares. Oh she had a few in her time, but they weren't recurring. She couldn't even imagine what that must be like. She hated the thought of Zuko waking up alone and scared.

"But look, it's just a stupid dream." Zuko said roughly and turned away from her. He sounded angry and sad at the same time. She knew he hated that she had seen him frightened like this. But he was just going to have to deal with it, because now she knew what she was going to do.

"Shove over." She said quietly. Zuko looked at with a confused expression, but he complied. She shimmied into his sleeping bag.

"Katara what are you doing?" Zuko sounded shocked.

"Stopping you from having nightmares, you goose." Katara wiggled into a better position.

"Can't you stop me from your own sleeping bag?" Zuko questioned hesitantly.

"No, that didn't work. Obviously." Why was he looking at her like that? She was only being sensible. This way they could both get a good night's sleep. He couldn't argue with that.

"Well this is going to get really squashy again." Zuko said rapidly. Well maybe he could argue with that.

"Yes and when it was really squashy you didn't have a nightmare." she said matter-of-factly.

"Well I just bought you that new sleeping bag today." New sleeping bag, new scmleeping bag. Katara liked Zuko's better anyway. He was relenting. She could tell. "Zuko. Stop being difficult. I'm right and you know it." He looked at her for a long moment and then shimmied back into the bag as well. She put an arm around him.

"Now just go back to sleep." She said with a sleepy yawn.

"You are such a bossy boots." He said, but he sounded like he was smiling. He gave her hand a little squeeze. Katara squeezed back.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The sun had just peaked over the mountains and Zuko woke to the first light. So Katara was in his sleeping bag. Again. She was just there, all nuzzle-y and curled around him like some giant affectionate pentapus. He couldn't get untangled from her. He didn't even want to. Because after she'd hopped in with him, he'd dreamed of nothing and just slept blissfully. Because she had understood exactly what he needed without him having to articulate it. He would never have been able to articulate it anyway. He didn't even know what he needed from her, he just needed her.

He'd never be able to say it to her face. He was no good with words for this sort of thing. But with her with him, he felt just so safe. Safe like he hadn't felt in forever, safe like nothing terrible would happen before he woke. All of uncle's breathing techniques and all the meditation and calming teas hadn't stopped that terrible horrible dream, but Katara could just by being there. Zuko didn't understand it. He was just thankful that she hadn't made an enormous deal out of it.

He was somewhat surprised that she'd been so willing to just hop in the sleeping bag with him, even though he'd just brought her a brand new, extremely expensive sleeping bag of her own. She just seemed to preferred to climb into his. Why did Katara always think the most obvious solution to any problem involved sharing his sleeping bag anyway? Would this be a thing with her now? Zuko envisioned how all future problems could be solved.

We're out of rice – that's cool we'll just share your sleeping bag and live off snuggles!

We're surrounded by angry platypus bears – get in the bag!

I'm dying and have only five minutes to live- that'll be just enough time for a quick cuddle in your sleeping bag!

Not that he was complaining. It was nice having her here. It was more than nice. But it was getting to him. He liked it too much. He wanted more. More than just shared sleep. He wanted her. A lot. More than he reckoned was healthy. It surely wasn't good for him to want her this much. Especially because in his past experience, the more you wanted something, the less likely you were to get it.

He didn't like to need anything or anyone too much. When you needed anything it could be used against you. Azula did it all the time. Used his need for love and his want for approval against him. No, Zuko knew for sure it wasn't good for him to want someone, or need someone like this. He'd tell her when she woke up. No more sharing. He'd have to learn to deal with his nightmares on his own. And she could sleep in her own bag. It was a nice bag after all.

He didn't want to do that! Zuko hadn't told anyone except his uncle about the dreams. He didn't want to appear weak, especially because he was a new firelord and it was hard enough commanding respect as it was. But Katara had just understood. That had never happened to Zuko before, someone just understanding him. Why couldn't he keep this? Just enjoy this without over thinking it. Obviously her proximity was affecting his ability to think. With her so close Zuko didn't know what he wanted anymore. Well he knew what he wanted but he knew he'd never get that. What would happen when they got back to the palace? Would she want to stay on as his personal cuddler and nightmare-preventer? Or would she laugh in his face and go off and snog that Haru guy with that ridiculous moustache?

He tried disentangle himself without waking her. It was tricky because she had her arms around him in what would've been a complicated headlock if she was awake and angry, but eventually he managed it. He stood up and stretched and looked down at her. He wanted to do something nice for her. He was never really good with like emotional stuff and shit, but he wanted to show her that he really was grateful without having to say it.

What was something Katara would want?

Katara was partial to dragon berries (so called because they have really rough outer skin). They were a bit of a luxury good because they were notoriously hard to harvest. The best berries only grew right at the top and the tree's foliage was too dense for firenation cranes to get close enough to gather the fruit. Someone had to climb to the top and pick them by hand. They'd gone past a stall that had them for a horrendous price yesterday and Katara had thought they were too expensive. They'd walked past a dragon berry tree on the way to the campsite here. The trees had a very distinctive vanilla sweet smell that Zuko would recognize anywhere. Now Zuko had a plan. He gathered up the satchel they'd used to carry groceries and set off in the direction of the trees. Today instead of his usual morning work out, he was going to practice his climbing skills.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

**Hi all! Thanks for reading this far. A few days ago I started a discussion on starsigns over at katara_Zuko livejournal community because I know next to nothing about astrology. Very interesting discussion resulted! The consensus was that Zuko would be a cancer and Katara would be a scorpio. Cancer and scorpio are really compatible together as well as just plain suiting the both of them. I've fiddled with the dates a bit, just because I can, and it gives Zuko a birthday coming up. **


	9. You may call me Tim

Katara had woken up sometime later. Zuko had written 'be back soon' in charcoal from the fire on one of the rocks and left it near her head so she'd see it when she woke up. She groaned and stretched and got up and collected herself and gathered up her new clothes and set off in the direction of the creek that they'd past yesterday. She scrubbed herself clean, washed her hair and dried herself before putting on her new outfit. She liked the feel of the soft fabric against her skin.

She as she wandered back to the camp she found a field of fire lilies and suppressed a shudder when she saw the red ones. They still reminded her of Hama. But the lilies here grew in a myriad of different colours. There were bright orange, yellow and pink lilies swaying in the breeze. She picked a few pink ones and planned to braid them into her hair. They would match her outfit nicely and she wanted to look pretty today. She got back to camp and then she tried to braid them in but gave up in frustration. She found she couldn't do it without a wandering minstrel to help her. She ended up just putting a lily behind her ear. Thinking about the minstrels put 'Secret tunnel' in her head and she hummed it as she started making breakfast.

Where was Zuko? Was it her? Was he avoiding her after all the snuggling? Katara knew Zuko liked it! She'd even_ felt_ how much he liked it. Katara liked it too, but he didn't need to know that. She'd hopped in next to him for entirely sensible reasons, but that didn't mean that she didn't enjoy sleeping with her arms all around him. Firebenders had slightly higher body temperature than others so it was like sleeping with a giant hot waterskin. A hot waterskin that had a fabulous body. A hot waterskin that wiggled and moved and complained a whole bunch at the beginning but then just settled down and slept quiet as a llamalamb.

He was probably off having a crisis of Zuko-ness about their non-essential snuggling and thinking up all sorts of ridiculous reasons why they shouldn't share the sleeping bag anymore. Zuko was a reluctant snuggler after all, but Katara thought that more snuggling would be just what the doctor ordered. He would have gone off, all embarrassed about having nightmares and trying to convince himself he didn't want a nightly cuddle. Then he'd come back, stumble over his words a bit. Honour would get mentioned, probably multiple times. And Katara would have to talk to him in her listen-with-mother voice and be proven right, yet again. Zuko was just inclined to bouts of idiotic self-sacrifice and needed someone like Katara around, who actually cared about him and knew what was in his best interest, to protect him from his own idiocy.

Suddenly Zuko appeared on the edge of the clearing carrying what looked like an ass-ton of Dragonberries. Oooh Katara's favourite! Where did he get all those? Why did he get all those? They were ridiculously expensive. And ridiculously delicious.

He wandered over with their grocery satchel full and held them out to her and then stopped in surprise when he saw her. He took in her new outfit, the different way she'd done her hair and the big firelily in it. He gaped for a moment before sputtering "You look nice." After a second he seemed to recover. "I mean you've done your hair different." He said as he put the satchel down in front to her.

"Yeah, I felt like doing something different. What's with all the Dragonberries?" she asked and picked up one and began to shell the hard outer-skin. She couldn't contain herself and resist this much deliciousness. You had to work for a dragon berry, but it was so worth it.

"They're for you." Zuko said sincerely. Katara smiled back openly.

"Thanks Zuko." she said brightly as she started peeling another dragonberry. Oh it tasted like honey and liquid sunshine and just happiness. "But you didn't have to do that. These would have been so expensive." She added as she tucked into another one.

"Oh no, I didn't buy them. I picked them from the dragon berry tree we passed on the way here." He said and gestured back the way he came.

"But you said they were notoriously hard to harvest and grew only at the very top." Katara said with surprise.

"I climbed." Zuko said a little proudly with a little smile before he looked away shyly. Katara stared at him. Not her _truth bending_ stare, but just a regular old stare. It was his look for the western air temple. whenever he did anything nice for them, there would be this blink-and-you'll-miss-it shy smile as if he wasn't sure how his gesture would be received and was fairly certain with would blow up in his face. What could he be so unsure about now? Surely he didn't think she'd get mad at dragon berries, especially not after he'd gone to such tremendous effort to get them for her.

"Why?" Katara asked.

"I wanted to say…" Zuko began and then stopped. There was a huge pause. The pause got longer and longer and became like a third person in the conversation, just sitting there, not saying anything and making things awkward. It seemed like even the berries were waiting to hear what he had to say.

"…Thank you, for last night." he said finally.

Oh so that's what this was about! Katara knew he was embarrassed by having nightmares and she wanted to reassure him that she'd never tell a soul, that she understood and she'd be there for him, but that seemed like too verbose a response to what he actually said. She got up and walked over and wrapped her arms around him again. She felt that good indigestion so strongly at this moment. It felt like she had goldfish in her belly and they were doing backflips of glee.

"You're welcome" she said softly and then couldn't resist adding playfully "Have a dragonberry, you big goose." She picked one and held it out to him. Katara already liked snuggling with Zuko. She didn't need any extra encouragement on that score. But if she got dragon berries every morning afterwards, she might just take up residence in his sleeping bag and never leave.

_Some time later…_

She and Zuko were walking toward The Mystical Bridge. They'd walked in companionable silence for a while. Suddenly the path gave way to a clearing and a steep cliff. They were standing on a precipice in front of an extremely rickety, dangerous looking bridge. There was a yawning abyss between their clearing and the other side. One frayed rope seemed to sway in the breeze, taunting her.

"Oh, hell no!" Katara exclaimed loudly. This bridge did not look structurally sound. This bridge looked as structurally unsound as could be. Structurally sound design would cross the road to avoid this bridge. This bridge was a _death trap._ The only thing mystical about it was how it had managed to stay up. This was a bad idea. So naturally Zuko would be all over that!

"Well, this is it." He said firmly and took a deep breath as if he was resigning himself to the idea that he was going to take his life in his hands and step across that rickety, crappy, terrible bridge.

"This is your Mystical Bridge!" Katara said incredulously. She'd been expecting something a little more majestic, with a name like the Mystical Bridge.

"Yes." Zuko said simply while giving the bridge the side-eye.

"I am not going across that thing!" Katara said firmly with a stamp of her foot. She dropped her pack and tried to glare some common sense into Zuko. It was a futile effort. She knew he wanted to find out what happened to his Mum. She got that. But surely there had to be a better, easier, less life endangering way to go about that. Zuko stared at the bridge for a few moments he put down his pack next to hers and looked a little lost in contemplation.

"You don't have to come with me." He said finally while looking at her a little sadly. He took a deep breath before adding with a great deal of steely determination. "But I have to know what happened to my mother and this is the only way. So I'm going."

"No, I'm coming with you." Katara said too quickly. Katara had been tempted for one quick second to just pick up her pack and head back to the capital in safety. Leave him here, if he was going to be an idiot and do stupid, impulsive, dangerous things without listening to her. She thought that for one fraction of a second, but she'd never… If she went back now, she be nothing but a giant ball of worrying and waiting. Besides Zuko needed her. He didn't say as much with his words, but his actions told her plenty. Katara was not the sort of person to abandon someone who needed her. Especially when that someone was grinning at her like she told him he'd just won a lifetimes supply of fireflakes. They stood there smiling at each other for a second when suddenly a big white furry monkey appeared from nowhere.

"Welcome to the Mystical Bridge!" the moneky said with a flourish. Well….that was really weird. Talking monkey? So it was going to be_ that_ type of quest then. The monkey was gesturing at the bridge in an enthusiastic manner that Katara didn't feel the bridge deserved.

"I am the spirit of adventure, a guide to seekers of knowledge, guardian of the oracle and keeper of the gateway to her." The Monkey said in a solemn voice. Katara looked at the monkey confused. "But you may call me Tim." The monkey added much more irreverently before slapping it's palms together and asking; "What is it that you two young lovers seek?" huh? Why did _everybody_ even talking monkeys in the middle of nowhere think she and Zuko were a couple. Were they putting out couple vibes?

"We're not lovers." Katara corrected Tim firmly.

"Really?" the monkey's face seemed genuinely surprised and perplexed and looked between the two of them blinking.

"No, we are just friends." Zuko added. The Tim didn't seem entirely satisfied with this answer.

"Actually _just friends_ or friends with a bison load of unresolved sexual tension going on?" the monkey asked in what Katara thought was an unnecessarily cheeky tone on voice. She and Zuko looked at each other with an unnecessary amount of sexual tension before turning an answering in unison.

"The first one." The monkey appeared terribly unimpressed.

"I see…." After a second, Tim collected itself and regained it's somewhat regal posture and said in a dignified tone, "Welcome prince and floozy friend." Katara couldn't believe she had just been called a floozy by a talking monkey wearing pants. She was too surprised to reply but Zuko was less circumspect.

"She is not a floozy!" He shouted at the monkey with both his fists flaming.

"Hey no need to get all fired up angry pants…sheesh. Firebend at me and you'll never know the answer to the question you seek." Tim said quickly. Zuko dropped the flames, but kept glaring at the monkey. Now the clearing was full of angry tension instead of sexual tension. Katara missed the latter.

"What do we need to do?" Katara asked in a calming tone. Some one needed to get the quest back on track.

"Are you both committed to the quest?" Tim asked earnestly.

"Yes." Katara and Zuko both said in unison. The monkey nodded.

"To get the answer to your question you must prove your worth to the oracle and complete three tasks. I am here to guide you to them. But now, first thing's first" He picked up their packs from where they had put them down and vanished to the other side of the abyss. There Tim stood at the other end of the bridge and waved the satchel of dragon berries tauntingly at them. "Come and get your bags." It crowed.

Why that little…..

Zuko had already taken off across the bridge. What was this? Were they really going to do this? Climb over that rickety unstable bridge following a talking monkey. Katara didn't want to do this. This was stupid. This quest was stupid. This bridge was stupid. He turned and glanced back to check she was following and Katara took a deep breath and screwed up her courage and took her first step on the rickety planks.

The ropes were old and fraying in places. The wood felt rotten. It felt like they were a million miles above the world and could fall any minute. It wasn't that far across, but it looked like a very great distance for where she stood. Zuko waited for her to catch up and they walked together easing there way along slowly.

"I really don't like this" Katara said apprehensively.

"We're nearly there. Just don't look down." Zuko tried for a reassuring tone. It didn't quite work.

When someone says don't look down, Katara found it impossible to resist doing so. She looked down. Oh bollocks, that was a mistake. Katara normally didn't have a thing about heights. Travelling on Appa, she was fine! Atop a giant water spout, she was comfortable! On a giant unstable bridge in the middle of nowhere with nothing underneath her but clouds. Totally different story. She didn't think this bridge was going to hold them. As if in response to her thoughts, one of the ropes gave a tremendous CRACK. They'd been easing along the bridge slowly but as soon as Zuko heard the crack he grabbed her arm and yelled _Run!_ They skittered across the bridge as more cracks echoed in the valley. Oh spirits they were going to plummet to their deaths this entire bridge was going to collapse.

Just at that second the bridge split in two. Right down the middle. The two sides swung away from each other in a graceful arc. They had been closer to the far side so they were swinging away from their old clearing and safety. Zuko had grabbed on to one of the planks and held onto her fast as the bridge swung towards the cliff. Someone was yelling a lot of frightened swear words. Katara realized vaguely that it was her. She grabbed onto Zuko with no small amount of hysteria. Oh noes!

They clattered against the far cliff face with some violence. The bridge shook for a bit then stilled. Zuko was hanging onto the bridge with one hand and onto Katara with the other. There was nothing around them but the remains of the bridge, the cliff face and the clouds. They were a waterbender and a firebender stuck between the earth and sky.

Well this sucked!


	10. Just friends, eh?

_Well this sucks!_ Zuko thought. He didn't say it out loud. Katara was a bit hysterical at the moment and had said it plenty, in many different creative phrases, with many choice words. Zuko thought one of them should be the calm one. He just never thought it would be him. If he started freaking out then they'd both be lost. Think! He'd gotten out of worse scrapes than this. He could climb the fallen bridge like a ladder or scale the cliff wall. It looked like there would be enough handholds for that. He'd need both hands for that. He could lift Katara up one armed and she could hang onto his back while he climbed.

"Katara, I'm going to get us out of this… I'm going to lift you up so you can grab onto my back, okay." He said, trying to sound like he knew what he was doing. He didn't really, but telling Katara that wouldn't have a calming effect.

"Okay." She replied tremulously.

It was much easier said than done. Eventually he was able to lift her up until her arm was even with his shoulder. She grabbed onto his shoulder with her other arm and there was a great deal of fretful commotion and frantic struggling. She poked him in the eye accidentally as she clambered around him, kicked him a bit during the process and grabbed him so forcefully round the neck that she practically started choking him. None of this was condusive to his ability to hang onto this dreadful bridge. Eventually she settled into place. Her legs were wrapped around his waist and her arms around his neck, not choking so, but definitely uncomfortably firm. He could feel her heartbeat fluttering at a million miles and hour and she was nervously repeating "This was such a bad idea. God I don't want to die on some random cliff face in the middle of nowhere. What are we even doing here? This was such a bad idea…."

"Katara" Zuko interrupted her.

"Yes"

"We're not going to die okay. I'm going to climb us out of here." He said with more bravado than he felt. He could do this. He'd scaled that icy glacier in the North Pole, he could do this. With one hand holding onto the bridge, he dung around he belt for the dagger he normally kept there. Just in case. His uncle had given him a new one when he'd become Firelord. Top quality fire nation steel. He missed his old earth kingdom one. The one that said 'never give up without a fight.' But this one would do for what he had in mind. He found it and scanned the cliff face for any rivets, splits and footholds in the cliffs surface. He saw what could be a path upwards to the left and a small crack in the cliff face just above his head. He slammed the dagger into it and tried to swivel it so it would be jammed in good and tight. Then he tested their weight. It would hold. He held onto the dagger and let go of the bridge.

Now instead of dangling from a rickety wooden plank over the side of a cliff, they were dangling from a firenation dagger from the side of a cliff. Zuko felt their situation had improved somewhat. He trusted the firenation dagger more than that bridge anyway. He reached for the first handhold and started to climb. The climb was extremely laborious. After a while, Katara had calmed down. Now she was trying to be 'encouraging' and advising him on where handholds were and generally being a backseat climber. "You are a good climber. I forgot about how you climbed that glacier in the North Pole. This must be a bit easier because at least you're not climbing on ice." She mused almost to herself.

Zuko wanted to say that it wasn't easier, but he couldn't, because it was almost too much effort to talk and climb at the same time. But when he'd climbed that glacier at the North Pole, he'd had Aang instead of Katara. Aang was smaller and slighted than Katara, however Zuko knew better than to ever, ever say this. However the main reason it had been easier with Aang was because Aang had been unconscious and hadn't constantly tried to 'help' him, hadn't squirmed and certainly hadn't wailed 'oh spirirts we are so high!' and 'bloody hell! It's such a long way down!" and "If we die here I am going to be so mad at you!" and "Do you even know what you're doing!" These various comments were not as helpful as Katara seemed to think they were.

When they were three quarters of the way, he paused and caught his breath and said (very grumpily) "Look, did you want to switch places and you can carry us both up this cliff?"

"No, I'm good here."

"Well can I have a bit of shush? This is much harder than it looks and I need to concentrate."

"Okay"

Soon they were nearly at the top. Zuko's hands were bleeding and his strength was nearly giving out. He had a moment to be grateful that he'd practiced climbing this morning. It proved to be a good warm up for what was a grueling mission. Zuko never gave up, that was true. But there were times when he just wished he hadn't started on a particular course of action. He would have given anything to be back in the sleeping bag and not here, dusty and sore and bleeding. His hands curled over the grassy edge of the far clearing. Using one last burst of strength and energy, he pulled them both over the edge. Katara rolled off his back and into the clearing and nearly kissed the ground with glee. "We made it! We're alive!" she cried happily. Zuko rolled over and lay on the ground exhausted with his arms and legs all spread out like a starfish. He wasn't moving for at least another 20 minutes. He was just going to lie here like a dead starfish until the feeling came back into his arms. Good plan Zuko!

Katara, who had been doing some happy _we'll live after all _dance came over and plonked herself next to him and smiled down at him. Zuko tried to smile back but even his face was tired. Suddenly her eyes went wide "Oh my goodness, you're bleeding." And before Zuko could say anything, she'd uncorked her water skin and taken both his hands and started healing them. Zuko sat up so it would be easier for her to heal them both at the same time. She ran the water up and down his forearms and hands and seemed fully engrossed in her task. Whenever Katara touched him like this it made his stomach go crazy with that good indigestion feeling. "Take your shirt off" she said suddenly.

"Why?" Zuko asked. Most of his scrapes had come from the climb and they were all on his hands and forearms. Katara paused for a second.

"I just want to check you over and make sure your not bleeding anywhere else." She said with an even voice. Oh, seemed reasonable enough. Zuko shrug off his shirt and Katara moved behind him and ran her healing hands over his back and shoulders. _Spirits _that felt good. He made a noise of appreciation in the back of his throat. She seemed to be able to drain all the tension and tiredness out of him.

After she'd soothed his aching muscles, he turned around to face her and completely forgot what he'd been about to say. Their faces were so close; he could feel her breath on his face. He felt a strange pull, an urging to just lean forward a little more and do what he had wanted to do for a very long time now. She held his gaze and smiled softly and leaned in.

"Just friends eh?" Tim the wise monkey chirruped smugly as it popped up right next to him.

Zuko hated that monkey.

He hated that monkey a lot.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

So maybe Katara had gotten a little bit hysterical. What with the bridge and the falling and the dangling above certain death. Katara didn't normally have a problem with heights. But this dangling with only a crappy bridge to hold them up was frightening. She challenged anyone not to freak out in that situation. Anyone who wasn't Zuko that is. Zuko had been cooler than a snow cucumber. He'd been so calm, so focused on getting them out that it had calmed her down as well.

After she'd scrambled onto his back she felt a little better about their ridiculously bad, terrible, idiotic situation. So maybe she clung to him a little tightly, like he was a life-raft and she couldn't swim. And maybe she occasionally bemoaned their terrible, bad idiotic situation. But for the most part she felt better. When he started to climb, she knew deep down that they were going to make it. Zuko wasn't going to let them die in such an inglorious manner. Zuko never gave up. Zuko sometimes got a bit snappish and asked for silence, but he didn't give up.

She'd know he was a good climber ever since the North Pole, when he, like an idiot, had scaled that glacier with an unconscious Aang in tow and faffed off into a blizzard. She hadn't even liked him then, but she'd admired his dedication to his stupid avatar-snatching mission. Now she admired his dedication to scaling this sheer cliff. It was a lot of effort. She could feel his muscles straining. He was getting pretty sweaty. Katara normally had great _appreciation_ for sweaty Zuko, if it weren't for the sheer drop below them, she would have almost been having a nice time.

After what seemed like an age, Zuko pulled them into the clearing on the far side. Katara rolled off him. They would live after all. She could've kissed the solid ground in happiness. She skipped around the grass just happy to be alive and not dangling over a cliff. She was alive and with a boy who she liked very much, who was also alive and not dangling over a cliff. Katara stopped her skipping and looked at Zuko, who was lying flat on his back like a drunken penguin, arms and legs stretched out at odd angles. He was breathing hard and still a bit sweaty. He almost made a comedic sight. She sat down next to him and he smiled lazily back at her. _He really was exhausted_ she thought as she looked him over before noticing his hands and arms were bleeding. They must have gotten scratched up in the climb.

She whipped out her water bottle and started healing all the little scratches on his hands and arms. He sat up to make it a bit easier for her to heal him. She took both his hands and ran the water all over them. He really did have nice hands. They were long, pale and larger than hers by a long way. She turned one of them over and wondered what it would be like to have them all over her body and…

"Take your shirt off." She heard her own voice saying. Whaa? Did Katara just say that out loud? Judging from the confused way Zuko was looking at her she must have! Bollocks! Daydreams are for private time, she admonished herself. "Why?" Zuko asked a little surprised. Why indeed. Good question. Katara knew she couldn't answer with the truth _I just like the sight of you shirtless._ Katara thought for a second before replying.

"I just want to check you over and make sure your not bleeding anywhere else." Nice save! And it worked. The shirt was off. Yay! She moved around behind him and started running her healing hands over his long back. She could feel the strain of the muscles, especially in his shoulders. She concentrated all her energy of soothing them. Zuko made a little blissful noise and Katara's brain momentarily stopped working. She didn't even know he could make sounds like that. How long they sat like that, Katara couldn't say. She may have lapsed into daydreamland again. When it felt like there was no more tension in Zuko's shoulders she stopped and lowered her hands.

She'd been about to say something when he turned around. And suddenly his face, his lips were right there. Was this real? Or was Katara daydreaming again? No, it was real alright. Katara looked down at his lips and then into his eyes. There was a question in them and if he had asked it, Katara would've said _yes_ in a heartbeat. So much was unsaid and just understood between them. Katara felt a gentle push and pull that she normally associated with waterbending in her stomach, it urged her to just lean forward and have a little taste. Zuko smelled dusty from the climb and ever so faintly like dragon berries. They were so close…

"Just friends eh?" that bloody monkey Tim popped up from nowhere and killed the moment stone dead! Bugger off moment-killing-Tim! She thought but didn't say. That would be rude. They both turned to gape at the Tim, who was smirking smugly like a smug smirker who smirks a lot. They were both a little aghast and embarrassed. Katara was also extremely irritated if truth be told. She'd just been about to….damn you monkey! If it was possible to will something to disappear with your mind, that monkey would have been gone!

"Well, I see you made it okay. Just not in the way I was expecting." The monkey laughed as if it had just made an extremely hilarious joke and then it handed them their packs. "Nobody's ever scaled the cliff face before. So ten points for originality." The Monkey said chuckling again, almost slapping the ground in mirth.

"How else do people make it over then? That bridge is a death trap! You nearly got us killed you stupid monkey." Zuko almost shouted at the monkey.

"The bridge is not a death trap. Look." The monkey gestured behind them. The bridge was suddenly repaired. It spanned the clearing without a single rope fraying and seemed to mock them with its very existence. "The bridge responds to you." The monkey added almost gently. "The more you believe in its ability to hold you up, the sturdier it is. However if you think it will collapse, that is exactly what it does."

"Why didn't you warn us? You could've killed us!" Katara hissed. If she'd know it worked like that she would have thought herself a giant sturdy rock bridge like the one into Omashu. Tim was crazy.

"No, no, you would've have died. You would have failed the quest but you would've have died. If you fell, you would just have ended up in the clearing where you started." Tim said gesturing back over to the far clearing.

"So that bridge was one of the tasks?" Zuko asked, sounding curious.

"Nope sorry! You still have three to go." Tim said and held up three fingers. Zuko looked disappointed as the monkey continued. "This was a test of dedication. You dedication to obtaining the knowledge you seek. You may go forward. " Tim said with a very regal bow. Katara and Zuko just sat and looked at the monkey. To follow a talking monkey in pants or not to follow a talking monkey in pants. That was the question. What to do? Obviously the monkey was crazy. Tim was tapping his foot and looking at them impatiently.

"Come on. Follow me, the first task awaits!"


	11. riddle me this

They shouldered their packs. Katara's was a lot lighter than Zuko's, because he'd had a fit of gentlemanliness back at the campsite. He'd insisted on carrying all their heavier items. Katara, who was willing to fight the girl-power-fight most of the time, let him win that one. They trailed behind that stupid monkey, walking side by side with their hands nearly touching. The woods were beautifully bathed in reddish tones.

The leaves were all changing colour and slowly falling from the canopy above. It reminded her, suddenly, a little of Jet. Jet and his autumn forest home. Jet and his blind fanaticism to destroy anything firenation. Even the good things. The innocent things. That was the problem with fanaticism. It lacked perspective.

Jet had been charming and she'd been swept away by the force of his charisma. She hadn't known him well at all and had decided he was perfect. Ever since Jet, she'd been more careful about whom she bestowed her affections on. She wanted to know someone well before she gave her heart. She wanted to be sure of them.

She looked at Zuko out of the corner of her eye. She felt differently about him than she did about Jet. For one thing, their history was much longer and more complicated. She'd seen him at his worst, as an arrogant, taunting opponent. She'd seen him at his most noble, trying to fight Azula on his own, so nobody else would have to get hurt. She'd seen him be vulnerable last night, vulnerable in a way that she didn't even know he could be. The more she got to know him, the more she liked him. But he had so many layers and secrets. Everyday she found out something new about him. He could still surprise her, like this morning with the dragon berries. That had been a good surprise. But what if the next surprise was a bad one? He'd give her a few bad surprises in the past.

They came to a second clearing which had a small moon gate through the middle of it. Tim gestured through the gate. 'Ta da- the first task. A test of logic.' Tim said in a booming voice. Zuko and Katara both started to walk toward it at the same time. 'Stop' the monkey said, suddenly in front of them, holding up his palm. 'Only one of you may go.' Tim said with a smile.

Katara and Zuko looked at each other for a long moment. She didn't want to get separated and from the look of his face, neither did Zuko. They worked better as a team. Finally Zuko said "I should probably be the one to go. This was my idea, my quest after all." Katara couldn't argue with that. This whole thing was definitely a Zuko idea. But still she stared at him for a moment longer before acquiescing. They put their packs down and she sat down to wait for him. "Good luck" she said as he turned and gave her a little smile and a wave before entering. Then he walked through the moon gate and out of sight.

Katara suddenly felt uneasy, in what had been a very beautiful clearing only a few moments ago. She side-eyed Tim the monkey. He was a sneaky, cheeky monkey. How long would this take? What was happening? She couldn't believe she felt this anxious about Zuko, of all people. He could take care of himself, for the most part, except when he was being an idiot. Which he was. Most of the time. Katara felt another pang of worry. Zuko had been gone ages now and she felt saddened by his absence. She just didn't like being separated. Whatever. She didn't want to analyze it.

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light, a startled cry and Zuko came flying through the moongate. He landed with a loud thud near her feet and lay motionless with his eyes closed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"**As punishment for not being able to see what is right in front of your face, you are sentenced to four hours of blindness, in the hope that you will be able to see better in the future."** The deep voice of the sphinx boomed and suddenly the world filled quickly with light and then dark and Zuko was flying.

He landed painfully on his back and felt winded, like all the air had gone out of his lungs during his landing. Katara was there in an instant. She grabbed his head, her graceful fingers checking his pulse while she shouted his name frantically. Zuko wanted to tell her he was okay, for the most part, but he was so winded and hadn't got air back into his lungs yet. Then her hands left his face and he heard the sound of ice daggers forming, being thrown and hitting their mark, whatever it was, with a thud.

'What did you do to him!' Katara yelled and her voice had a very dangerous edge to it.

'Oi! Crazy girl!' He'll be okay.' Tim replied indignantly. "You've ruined my pants crazy girl!" he added.

Zuko groaned and stretched and called out to her before she buried their wise monkey guide in a giant ball of ice.

'Katara, I'm okay. Mostly.' He rasped out and tried sitting up. She was back and kneeling at his side in a heartbeat. 'It blinded me, but only temporarily.' He said as he tested the ground below them, feeling it with his hands. It was grassy. He felt one of Katara's hands on the side of his face and her other was covered in water and trying to heal his eyes. It felt good, but he still only saw blackness.

"Better?" she asked worriedly.

"Well it feels better, but I still can't see." Zuko replied.

"That won't work, crazy girl. It'll last for four hours and then he'll be fine." Tim said in a tone that sounded like he was talking to an extremely slow and difficult child. His voice came from somewhere near the moongate and he was making noises that sounded suspicionsly like he was trying to pull slippery ice daggers out of something.

"You shut up before I bury you in an ice ball." Katara snapped back. She was really mad. Zuko wanted to calm her down. He reached for where he thought her hand was but got arm instead. Oh well, close enough.

"No Katara, it's telling the truth. There's a giant sphinx thing in there that asks you a riddle and if you get the answer wrong it blinds you." He explained, trying to make it sound like it was not big deal and that not being able to see didn't really freak him out. How did Toph stand this? This was awful, just being surrounded by blackness and noises.

"So you can't see anything at all." Katara asked, her voice sounded very close.

"Not at the moment."

"Not even this?" Zuko had no idea what 'this' was so he answered negative.

"Come on, I'll take you back beyond the bridge." Tim said with reluctantly with a sigh.

"What? Why?" Zuko asked.

"You've failed the first task. The quest is off. Shame I had high hopes for the pair of you." Tim said from a bit closer. Zuko lowered his head. He'd failed. Over something as stupid as a riddle. It just wasn't fair. They'd come so far. He'd scaled a sheer cliff with a truculent passenger to get here!

"Wait, let me have a go!" Katara said suddenly, standing up.

"I don't know crazy girl."Tim sounded dubious.

"I at least deserve a shot at it." Katara said, all determined. Zuko heard her stamp her foot.

"Katara no, it asks really hard riddles." Zuko said. He wanted to find out where his mother was, of course he did. But he didn't want Katara getting hurt on his account. Being blind was really scary, when you were used to being able to see.

"Well if I get it wrong, I'll just be temporarily blinded. In four hours we'll both be fine. We've come so far Zuko, to fail over some stupid riddle." Zuko had just been thinking the same thing, but still he felt really reluctant to let her go. Not that he could stop her from doing whatever she wanted to do anyway. But he couldn't help thinking that if anything bad happened to Katara he'd… he stopped that trail of thought. It went to a dark place. "Besides I'm highly logical." Katara added firmly. Zuko could feel himself nod. Suddenly her voice was really close, just in his ear.

"You stay right here and I'll be back as soon as I can." She whispered and gave his shoulder a squeeze. He could hear her footsteps walking toward the moongate. Zuko found it really easy to follow her directive. Where did she think he would go anyway, in this state?

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Katara walked through the moongate and into a small hall. At the end of it sat a Sphinx. Katara though a Sphinx was meant to stand regally and be all impressive. This Sphinx had obviously thought its work was done for the day. It was lounging back, lion legs in the air in an especially undignified pose, lazily filing its nails and humming what sounded suspiciously like 'Secret Tunnel'. It got to the chorus and did a little air-zitar move, using its nail file as a pick and sang 'Secret Tunnel! Secret Tunnel! Through the mountains!' It was, hands down, the weirdest thing Katara had ever seen in her life.

The Sphinx hadn't noticed her come in so she gave a little cough to announce her presence. It gave a startled yelp when it saw her and threw the nail file away and tried to assemble a more majestic pose. 'What are you doing here?" It asked shrilly. Then it seemed to collect itself and added in a much deeper tone. "Welcome the one they call crazy girl" it bowed slightly in her direction.

"They don't call me that! Who calls me that?" Katara said, a bit indignant.

"Oh sorry." The Sphinx seemed taken aback. "I heard Tim the Wisemonkey call you crazy girl at least twice. I just assumed it was you name." The Sphinx explained, looking confused.

"Well it's not! My name is Katara." She said firmly.

"Good to know!" the Sphinx said a bit more chipper. "Okay we should start again. This is going all wrong." Katara didn't know what it meant by start again, but it gestured at her to walk back down the hall. "Look just pretend like you're coming in for the first time!" It called out encouragingly. When she was at the far end she began walking towards it again.

"Welcome the one they call Katara. I am the great and powerful Sphinx….." it boomed out majestically. "I am older than time. I am…." It started. Katara could sense this was a long speech coming up and she really just wanted to answer a riddle and get back to Zuko. She started coughing very loudly to interrupt the Sphinx. As soon as she had its attention she would ask it to hurry up. On the third loudly interrupting cough it looked at her.

"Hi, look I'm sorry to rush you, but can you ask me the riddle now? My friend is waiting outside and I'd like to get back quickly." She said in a tone that was polite but allowed no room for argument.

"Don't you want some deep metaphorical mumbo jumbo about the meaning of life and shit?" The Sphinx sounded a little surprised and disappointed.

"No, I'm good." Katara shrugged. She didn't know how much she could learn from a Sphinx that lived with a talking monkey in pants and sang 'Secret Tunnel' off key. "Let's just get to the riddle." She said firmly.

"Oh… Um okay then." The Sphinx said and looked about in a bemused manner. It didn't say anything for a long time. Katara started tapping her foot with impatience.

"What? What is taking so long?" she eventually asked.

"Sorry, you've just thrown me off my Sphinx groove. No one ever skips the mumbo jumbo." The Sphinx said a little defensively.

"Look, I understand it's difficult when things don't go as expected, but I'm kind of in a rush. So if you could riddle-me-this quickly, I'd be grateful." Katara said, trying to keep the impatience out of her voice. Zuko would never say it, but he'd be scared to be left alone, not being able to see. Katara would hate that herself.

"I'm thinking of one okay!" the sphinx huffed back at her before muttering. "Jeez. Bossy." under its breath. It thought for a bit more and then stood up, rearranged itself to be more majestic again and said in a deep tone.

"I'm going to Ba Sing Se, on the way I meet a man with two sisters and his wife, each woman is leading two ostrich horses and has eight children and each child is holding a basket full of seven baby rabbiroos. How many are going to Ba Sing Se?" It said and gave her a look that said hardy-har-har-solve-that! Katara thought for a sec. It would be a tricky question. It was all in the wording. She had it!

"Umm, just you. I'm pretty sure it's just you…Otherwise I'll need a sec to do the maths." She answered simply.

"Is that your final answer?" the Sphinx said evenly.

"Yes." Katara replied.

"Want to lock it in or call a friend? " The Sphinx asked again.

"Can I do that?" Katara replied excitedly.

"No" The sphinx said firmly.

"Oh, Okay, I'll lock it in then." Katara said and there was a long pause in which the sphinx didn't say anything. It looked around the hall like it didn't quite know what to do. Oh for goodness sake! She'd answered the question, what more did it want!

"What is it? Am I blinded?" she asked a bit exasperated.

"Umm well, you are correct actually" the Sphinx said and paused again. "Look, I'm just so used to blinding people ominously. I'm out of practice about what to do when somebody gets it right." The Sphinx explained. "So um… I guess you can go to the next task. Tim, the wise monkey will give you directions." It gave her an odd look like it didn't know quite what to make of her and then added a dismissive little wave. Well that was anticlimactic Katara thought as she turned and ran out of the room and back to Zuko.


	12. Kind of brilliant

Zuko was sitting exactly where she'd left him, leaning against a rock, twirling his fingers together. Katara ran towards him with a spring in her step. "I got it right! I got it right and we can go forward to the next task." She cried out happily and he looked up toward to the sound of her voice. She flung her arms around him with a little too much gusto (she was just so excited to have gotten the riddle right!) Zuko wasn't expecting a hug, at least not a hug with this much enthusiasm and he made a small surprised noise that can be best written as _aerrggh?_ as Katara crashed into him. Her hug turned into more of a tackle and they ended up in a pile of limbs on the forest floor. There was some inelegant struggling, autumn leaves went everywhere and Katara ended up sprawled onto of Zuko at an awkward angle.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to knock you over!" Katara said as she scrambled up. She helped Zuko up and they both sat leaning against a rock.

"No, that's okay. Girls fling themselves at me all the time." Zuko said with a little smile. Was Zuko being funny? Trying to make a joke? Was this a side effect of being blinded? Katara chuckled a little in surprise more than anything. He flashed her a smile that was obviously meant to be charming but was offset by some leaves in his hair that he hadn't noticed. Katara started picking them out.

"So, you got it right?" Zuko asked in a different, more serious tone.

"Yeah! It's because I'm definitely the more logical one out of the two of us." She said cheerily. She was combing her fingers through his dark hair and he was struggling a little so she added a "Hold still" as she was trying to get out a leaf that had become tangled.

"What did it ask you?" Zuko asked quietly, ducking his head away when Katara had pronounced herself satisfied. Katara told him her riddle and he made a sort of confused face before he said, "It asked me something similar, except everyone was going to Omashu. I don't know how I got it wrong. I am really good at arithmetic."

Katara explained about how only the Sphinx was going to Ba Sing Se and that it was probably the same with the Omashu riddle. The aim was to confuse people with too many numbers so that they didn't remember what was actually said. It was a simple word trick really. Zuko did not seem pleased with this answer. He looked positively agape. He was as cross as cross could be. He couldn't look more put out if someone had come along, kicked a litter of bunnykittens, tore the last page out of the mystery book he was reading and absconded with the palace silver.

"What! That is the lamest stupidest thing ever!" he exclaimed angrily before adding "I've been blinded over some stupid word trick!" He threw his hands over his head with a bit of melodrama, or Zukodrama as Katara had started calling it in her head. Katara took his hand with a smile. He had already started pouting. His bottom lip was sticking out and everything. It was kind of cute.

"That's all riddles are, you just have to listen carefully." She said sweetly. He grumbled a response that she couldn't quite make out entirely but she could clearly discern the words 'stupid riddle'. She thought they should accentuate the positive. They could pass on to the next task, and they'd be one step closer to finding out what happened to his mum. She told Zuko this and he cheered up a little.

"So what's the next task?" He asked

"I don't know. The Tim is meant to take us to it." She said while looking around the clearing. The monkey was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Tim?" she asked in a curious tone.

"Oh, He faffed off." Zuko a bit disgruntled. And added that he couldn't even see so he had no idea even which direction their wise monkey had walked off in.

"What?" Katara asked disbelievingly.

"He said he had wise monkey business to attend to. Business that didn't involve babysitting my blinded arse." Zuko said a little grumpily. He probably hated the implication that he needed to be babysat. Katara felt a wave of anger surge through her. That monkey was going down! How rude! How irresponsible!

"He said that to you?" Katara asked and made an ice dagger almost unconsciously with her left hand. Zuko looked in the direction of the cracking noise the ice dagger made and then reached up placating with his hand. He must have been aiming for her hand, or maybe her arm, Katara was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Either way, when he lowered his hand, he lowered it onto her boob, where it sat for a fraction of a millisecond before both Zuko and Katara realized what he'd done. Zuko's eyes went wide and he flushed bright red and whipped his hand away quick as a flash.

"Sorry, sorry" he stammered, "I just wanted to calm you down, so you didn't bury our Wise monkey in a ball of ice when he appears." In a way, his boob touch had been successful in this endeavor. Katara's brain had emptied itself of all the _Tim with feel my wrath_ thoughts was instead filled with _ohmygoodness Zuko's hand is on my boob_ thoughts. Still the monkey had no excuse.

"The monkey totally has it coming! Abandoning you like that!" Katara said righteously.

"Well…He thought you'd be a lot longer in there. Normally the sphinx likes to give a big old meaning of life mumbo jumbo speech that takes ages." Zuko said, trying to make an excuse for their disaappearing wise monkey.

"Yeah, I skipped that!" Katara said simply.

'Wait, that was an option?" Zuko said with some confusion. Katara nodded before she realized that he couldn't see it, so she just answered with the truth; that she'd told it to cut to the chase, already.

"Well, there is half an hour of my life I'll never get back." Zuko huffed.

"Did I miss anything?" Katara asked good naturedly.

"Nah, it was just metaphorical mumbo jumbo and I've heard enough of that from Uncle." Zuko said with a grin in the direction of where her voice had come from. He was actually looking over her shoulder. Her stomach grumbled then, quite loudly and she realized how long it had been since their delicious breakfast.

"Well, I guess we may as well have lunch while we wait for this bloody monkey." She said as she opened the pack. She looked at all their supplies and realized that not a lot of it was blind friendly. Anything that required bowls, chopstick etc would be a bit too difficult for Zuko in his current state. Then Katara saw that they still had a few dragon berries left. She peeled one really quickly and popped it in against Zuko's mouth; her fingers grazed his lips slightly as she did so.

0o0o0o0o0o0

So, Katara had fed him. It had been really intimate. In a really strange way. Surreal strange. Zuko had never imagined anything like this, in even his weirdest fantasies. It was frustrating and kind of nice at the same time. That was a very unusual combination of feelings for Zuko. The worst part of being blind, aside from all the obvious things, was that he couldn't do the simplest things, like find the dragonberries in amongst all the other stuff in their packs, for himself. He was really frustrated by this. But then it had been nice, just sitting with Katara and having her occasionally pop an already peeled dragonberry into his mouth. Their shoulders were touching and her head was leaning a little against his shoulder and it had been companionable, lovely even, just sitting there together.

Eventually Katara decided that they couldn't just live off dragonberries and sexual tension alone. She was going to boil some dumplings for a proper lunch. He heard her faffing about but couldn't do much to help. Firstly because he couldn't see anything and secondly because the first time he tried to help, Katara admonished him quite soundly to just sit still and relax. Zuko had learnt that it was always better to do what Katara said when she said it in that tone of voice. She'd grabbed his hand after a while and jerked him upwards and pointed it at something.

"Can you aim just a bit of fire this way?" she'd whispered in his ear. Zuko took a second to decide what she meant by just a bit of fire and then sent out a small blast, enough to light a campfire, but not a forest. Obviously he'd done right because Katara had clapped happily and their small fire had burst into life. Zuko could tell it was only small from the feel of the heat on his face. Soon Katara had put a steaming dumpling in his hand and their 'proper' lunch began. His hand accidentally grazed her breast again when he was reaching for a third dumpling. Gah! It seemed like as soon as he went blind, the world suddenly became filled with boobs. Boobs were everywhere. If he did it again, she'd think he was doing in on purpose and just trying to cop a feel. Which he wasn't. The first one, at least, had been entirely accidental. Zuko felt himself blush and smile just thinking of it.

After they had finished eating, there didn't seem much to do except sit about and wait for Tim. Sitting about became lazing about and lazing about had become lying about. Now they were sort of lying together in the grassy clearing, looking up and the canopy. Well Katara must have been at least. Zuko could only feel the movement of light and shade across his face whenever the leaves blew and the sun shone down. They held hands loosely, and lay on their backs with shoulders toughing. It was nice having her solidly next to him. The only sense he could solidly rely on at the moment was touch.

He'd heard that blind people were meant to have super hearing, but he didn't reckon he'd been blind for long enough for that to kick in yet. He'd have to ask Toph. Toph was just so amazing to be able to do everything she could do. He'd been talking about how amazing Toph was for a bit before Katara had gotten a bit miffed and said "Well if Toph is so amazing, why don't you just marry her then." Zuko hadn't quite known what to say in reply to this rather fanciful statement, so they'd lain in a grumpy kind of silence. What was Katara's problem? He had just recently been blinded, Toph was the only blind person he knew and she was pretty awesome at everything even despite being blind, it was just natural that he'd want to talk about her. A lot. Maybe too much. Maybe that's what this was about.

Was she jealous? No…she couldn't be. Or maybe? Yes. She must be jealous. Jealous of how awesome he thought Toph was. He thought Katara had no reason to be jealous. He thought Toph was awesome, but he thought she was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Even the things about her that the others got annoyed with, like her bossiness and her motherliness, Zuko kind of loved about her. Of course he couldn't say anything this sappy out loud. So he gave her hand a little squeeze and said "I think you're brilliant Katara. You know that right?"

She didn't say anything for a long second and Zuko thought he had miscalculated terribly. But then she gave his hand a big squeeze and almost whispered, really close to his ear "You're kind of brilliant yourself." Zuko felt himself smile wider than he ever had in his life. His stomach was doing crazy backflips and his heart was beating really fast. Katara thought he was brilliant (kind of) and nothing had ever made him happier.

Zuko was going to say something. He hoped with would be something witty. He wanted to say something about combining their brilliance and maybe, you know, if she wanted to, and no pressure, and if she didn't, he'd completely understand. But if she did want to, they could try kissing again. And maybe again after that. If she was up for it, that is. Maybe it would be better to ask her while he was blind, that way he wouldn't be able to see her face and then hopefully he could reach the end of his sentence without becoming completely lost. Her face distracted him sometimes. It made him lose his train of thought. Not just his train of thought, but his ticket, his luggage, his seat and the exit aisle. That was the power of her face.

He was just framing how he was going to say all this, without sounding like a complete dork. Zuko had a feeling he was going to sound like a dork anyway. He always, inadvertently, ended up sound like a dork when he wanted to sound cool.

"Katara, can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"I was wondering if…" Zuko never got to finish his sentence because just at that moment he heard the sound of the monkey Tim reappearing with a loud crack right next to them.

Zuko hated that monkey.

So much.


	13. obscene rocks and snow forts

Authors note: Thanks again for all the wonderful feedback! You guys are fabulous!

Ice wine is awesome!

A snow spirit would be like a snow angel in my imagination. I didn't know if they had a concept of angels in the avatar world, so I thought spirit would make more sense. In my imagination Katara and Zuko would make them until one of them put snow down the other's jacket and then the whole thing would degenerate into inelegant snow wrestling with the required unresolved sexual tension going off the charts. Snow angels would be ruined and much fun would be had by all.

….

"Well!" Tim the wise monkey announced his arrival with a bit of a clap and a lot of glee. "I see at least one of you is logical." He let that hang in the air. Zuko had convinced her that it would not be in their best interest to bury the monkey in an iceball. But Katara was sorely tempted. Tim had left Zuko all alone after he'd been blinded and he had been rude to him! He was practically asking for an iceball burial. Next time it was a jerk to either of them, it would be iceballs right ahead!

The monkey just kept interrupting! Was that his magical skill, to interrupt at the least opportune moment? Or maybe it was moment killing. This monkey could kill a moment stone dead at fifty paces. She and Zuko had been having _another _moment and now it was gone. Poof. And now they struggled to sit up and the monkey looked between then grinning.

"Come on! Up you get! No time to waste" Tim urged enthusiastically. "You have to get to the next task by sundown and you don't have much time." he said and pointed to where the sun was in the sky. "To get to the next task, you go down this path" Tim said in an authoritative voice while gesturing into the underbrush where a path appeared going deeper into the woods. "Follow that path past the rock that looks obscene and into the third clearing on the right, the one just beyond the river. The second task is there. But you do not have the luxury of time." Tim said then vanished with a pop before Katara could say that they would have had the luxury of time if Time hadn't buggered off.

Katara looked down the path and looked at Zuko. His normally bright amber eyes were covered in a pale sheen and look dull and unseeing. It was unnerving. Could they do this if one of them couldn't see? What happened if they ran into trouble? What happened if they needed to climb anymore cliffs? Katara knew they didn't have time for her to sit around and be indecisive. If they needed to be there by night fall then they would have to leave now. She helped Zuko get his pack on and took his hand in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze. She held on to his hand and started walking.

The ground was rocky and uneven and she had to keep steering Zuko around tree knots and pot holes. He was much taller than her and very ungainly now that he was blind, so it was quite a task. He didn't take direction well and kept stumbling and falling into her. After each fall he would squeeze her hand a little tightly and walk very close to her. After a while he put both hands on her shoulders so that they were walking like some kind of four-legged-animal joined at the shoulders. It must be nerve-racking to not being able to see. To distract him and herself from this ridiculous situation, she started talking about home. Thoughts of the South Pole always comforted her somehow. When this was over and when the weather was warmer, she'd take Zuko there. It would be good for him, she reasoned, to see how the water tribes lived, if he wanted to build peace with them.

"You should come with me and Sokka back to the southern water tribe this spring. Everyone's coming, Toph and Aang and Suki." She offered and Zuko gave her shoulders a little squeeze.

"I'd like that, but don't know if I'd be welcome, because of…" He lifted up one of hands and mimed what Katara thought was a fish, or maybe a boat. Suddenly he shook his hand in a shuddery motion. What was this? The boat crashing? Oh yeah! He crashed his boat into the village! It seemed a lifetime ago now. That was when they first met. How far they'd come, she thought with a smile.

"Nah, you'll be fine if you come with us." She said brightly. She was proud of him and proud of herself. They'd both learned so much and come so far since then. He'd probably be a bit shy and awkward about coming, like how he was on Kyoshi Island. They'd dropped Ty Lee and a few of the other warriors who'd stayed in the firenation for a while, back on the Island a few weeks ago.

If it was possible for someone to melt from embarrassment, Zuko would have in Suki's village. Every person they met would say some variation of "_I know you! You're that kid who set our village on fire_." Pointing and shouting was the optional, but preferred method of delivering this statement. Zuko would blush and stammer and say some variation on "_Yeah, sorry about that. I feel really bad about it, if that helps_." He probably wasn't too keen on repeating a similar experience. But Katara really wanted him to come, all of a sudden. She wanted to show him how she and Sokka had lived, and take him penguin sledding and throw snowballs at him and watch the southern lights with him and maybe get a little drunk on ice wine with him. What would Zuko be like drunk? Katara would bet a million sea prunes that he'd be an emotional, cuddly drunk.

"And it would be good for you! You should see how the water tribes live if you want to make peace with them." She said persuasively. It wasn't the real reason she wanted him to come, but it was the one that was most likely to convince him.

"That's true." Zuko said slowly. She turned her head a little to look at him. He was smiling to himself with little uncertainty in his expression. "Would you all really want me to come along?" he asked softly.

Katara found she could not resist the urge to ruffle his hair and say "Of course, you big goose. You're part of the group now." So she took both his hands and turned around to face him and did just that. Then he smiled in her direction so widely. Her stomach flipped and she blushed and she wanted to do things she shouldn't want to do. She should focus on getting them to where they were going. She should not be thinking about how nice Zuko's face looked when he smiled like that. His high cheekbones should not be occupying her mind right now when they had a quest to get to. She turned back around replaced his hands on her shoulders and started walking again.

"Besides, if you come we can have even teams for snowball fights and maybe even make a snow fort." She said in a very business-like manner.

"So I'll be in Aang's snow fort?" Zuko asked from behind her, but she couldn't see his expression because she was not going to turn around and look at him again. But she was a bit miffed that he would automatically pick to be on Aang's team in their hypothetical snowball fight. Humph. See if she'd drink hypothetical ice wine with him afterwards if he was on another team.

"Why would you be in Aang's fort?" she said and couldn't keep the annoyance out of her tone.

"He's the other waterbender…" Zuko said like it explained everything. "Don't these things normally degenerate into boys versus girls and stuff?" Zuko asked questioningly.

"Well sometimes…." Katara started. He did have a point; the teams would be mostly even if they did go with boys against girls. But that wasn't the point of these hypothetical snow forts.

"But you'd be welcome in my fort _anytime_…" She said because she wanted him to know that she'd prefer to have him on her team. But unfortunately it came out with much more innuendo than she meant. It was very sexy innuendo at that. Zuko tripped in surprise and fell into her and blushed furiously and the innuendo was just there, hanging about, making her think thoughts about snow forts and just the two of them and what they could get up to. Obviously Zuko was thinking along similar lines, judging from how red his face was. Just explain, Katara thought, say that you didn't mean it like that.

"Just because my fort would be far superior to Aang's. I'll have blankets and snacks and Aang never thinks of that sort of thing. And I wouldn't want you to catch a cold." Katara said in a big rush and started walking again.

"Okay then, your fort it is." Zuko said with what sounded suspiciously like a smirk but Katara wasn't sure. "What else is there to do?" he asked after a while.

"We can watch for the southern lights at night. They're pretty. And in the day we'll make snow spirits." Katara loved making snow spirits. She loved the sensation of falling back into big snow drifts and having all that snow cushion her fall and feeling it all around her.

"What's a snow spirit?" Zuko asked, sounding a little baffled.

"Oh Zuko you really did have a deprived childhood! No water games, no snow spirits!" Katara exclaimed in surprise. "What did you do for fun?" she asked, because he must have had at least _some_ fun and _some _point in his life.

"Mastered Dao blades. It was hours of rigorous training." He said evenly without even the tiniest note of sarcasm.

"And that was fun for you?" Katara couldn't help it, more than the tiniest bit of sarcasm sneaked into her tone. Trust Zuko to classify something that took hours of rigorous training as fun.

"Well it wasn't considered necessary for me to learn it. So I was being a bit rebellious when I took it up." Zuko said behind her.

"You wild child!" she said in a mock scandalized tone.

"Hey I didn't make fun of snow spirits" Zuko said defensively, before adding, "even though they sound super lame." How could he call snow spirits lame when he'd never felt how awesome it was to make one.

"You want to know what else is super lame? You… for getting one of the easiest riddles in the world wrong." Katara replied.

Zuko muttered something that sounded suspiciously like _stupid riddle._ He sighed behind her, quiet loudly. "You're definitely going to lord it over me later, aren't you?" he asked sounding resigned to his fate.

At this Katara just smiled. It was true. She was planning on lording it over him later, when he could see and was in a better mood for teasing. To tease him too much now would just be mean. She'd always told him she was the logical one out of the two of them and he should listen to her more. She was going to have fun with this later, but not now when he was so vulnerable and needed her to not be a complete jerkface about it.

Suddenly Katara stopped dead in her tracks staring at the ridiculous rock formation before her. Zuko collided heavily with her because she'd stopped so suddenly. His hand grazed boob again. Katara was starting to wonder if he was doing it on purpose.

"Oh my goodness!" Katara exclaimed and she knew she must have been looking at what Tim called the rock that looks obscene. This rock looked really obscene. It looked exactly like a….it even had two boulders for… Surely it could not have formed like that naturally. Had some pervert come along here and carved it that way? It was engrossing and repellant at the same time.

"Zuko, you've got to see this!" she said without thinking. Zuko made a very sarcastic facial expression in her direction.

"Hardy har har Katara." He said grumpily before his eyes widened. "Actually I think I can nearly see it. The blindness must be wearing off. Everything is blurry, but I can see shapes." He said enthusiastically. He looked up at where the obscene rock was silhouetted against the sky.

"Spirits, it looks like a…"

"I know what it looks like!"

"That really is an obscene rock!"

"I was just thinking someone must come along and carve it that way."

"Who would do such a thing?"

"Stranger things have happened."

They argued over the merits of someone coming out to carve it and walked hand in hand past two clearings and a river until they got to the third one on the right. "Well, we're here." Katara said as scanned the meadow and with a sinking feeling she realized she couldn't see that bloody Tim anywhere.

"Tim's not here. Maybe we should make camp while we wait for him." Katara said a little uncertainly. Now that she looked at the meadow she got a funny feeling from it. Something wasn't right and she couldn't place her finger on what exactly. There was something strangely ominous in the way the fire lilies wafted gently in front of them. Then Katara realized it was because there was no breeze. Zuko however suddenly made a happy noise and started pulling them into the meadow.

"I can see again!" he cried joyfully. "Oh it's amazing, the flowers! The sunset! I never thought I'd see them again!" He was being a bit Zukodramatic Katara thought.

"You were only blinded for four hours Mr enthusiastic." Katara said as she tried to pull him back to the path.

"Four terrible dark hours of terror!" Zuko shot back as he kept walking.

"Zuko I don't know about this meadow. I think we should go back" Katara said, her voice rising in uncertainty.

"What? Why? Tim said to wait here." Zuko turned around to look at her with a confused expression on his face.

"And I don't trust that bloody monkey. Look I really think we should go back." Katara said as gestured back to the path.

"What could happen to us h…" Zuko's sentence was cut off. As if the universe was mocking him, the entire ground gave way beneath their feet and they fell. Zuko landed hard on the bottom of a pit and Katara landed on top of him.

Tim appeared over the edge of the pit.

"You really should listen to her more. She is the logical one after all." Tim said happily as he chuckled to himself.

They were trapped.

Oh noes!


	14. jerkbender vs bossyboots

Authors note: Hello lovely readers. Thanks again to everyone who's favourite-ed, reviewed and PMed me! This chapter gets a bit more serious and Zuko and Katara have a bit of a fight. (gasp!) but don't worry mes amis! Soon we will be back to our regularly scheduled ridiculousness. I just thought it would be more realistic (or as realistic as you can be in a fic with a talking monkey in pants) if our dynamic duo had a fight to relieve some of that tension. These are two intense and passionate people with a bison load of sexual tension between them and it just made sense, in my imagination, that that tension would have to come out in other ways if they aren't tearing each others clothes off. There are other reasons why they are so cranky in this chapter, but they will be revealed later!

Without further ado!

…

"The task is simple. You just need to get out of this hole. You will have a full day. I will see you at this time tomorrow. Good luck." Tim said before offering them a little bow and disappearing over the edge

They were trapped. Zuko had gone round the whole perimeter of the pit trying to, simultaneously, find an easy way back out and drown out the collected rantings of Katara. Once again everything was All. His. Fault! He was getting a bit sick of hearing about how wrong and idiotic he was. If only he could find a way out. The pit was perfectly circular and smooth and was about twenty feet wide so he couldn't even get that far away from her. Today he'd been sore, bleeding, exhausted, hungry, blinded, scared, sore again, and called stupid by a giant sphinx. Everything was going wrong on this bloody quest.

"See! See what happens when you don't listen to me!" Katara was exclaiming when he tuned back in briefly. Obviously he hadn't missed much. She was just stuck on loop. I'm always right, you're always wrong. Blah blah blah. She was harping on and on and on! And Zuko was sick of it.

"This is why I should be in charge!" Katara announced with a footstamp. Before Zuko could stop himself he fired back. "Why should you be in charge? This is my quest! This is my mother! I never asked you to come! You just barged in and started bossing me around." He said a little angrily. He thought he'd been a good sport about her coming along and Katara-ing all over everything. He hadn't gotten all in her face over anything when they went to look for the southern raiders together. He'd never even mentioned the bloodbending which had really freaked him out at the time. He'd just let her do what she needed to do. He respected her enough to let her make her own decisions. But she just never left him alone.

"Well, I wouldn't have boss you around if you knew what you were doing,. .Which you don't!" Katara shot back defensively with another angry and indignant foot stamp.

"Oh and you know what you're doing! You're the one who made the bridge collapse with all your negative bridge thoughts." Zuko said with a twirly hand gesture that was supposed to symbolize negative-bridge-thoughts but ended up looking like struggling spirit fingers. He crossed his arms in front of himself, feeling his point was made.

"Who wouldn't have negative thoughts about that bridge…Oh yeah, only an idiot." Katara said her voice dripping with derision. She was crossing her arms too and had gotten right up in his face, literally. Their faces had only been this far apart a few hours ago, but for an entirely different reason. Now the whole mood had changed. Zuko was angry and tired and he did what he always did when he felt attacked. He lashed out right back.

"Well I'm the idiot that got us out of that while you were freaking out. You've done nothing but slow me down this whole time. I would have had this quest over and done with by now if you hadn't come along!" What was Zuko saying? He was so worked up that he couldn't seem to stop hateful, hurtful words from coming out. Katara spluttered indignantly before she started poking him the chest with a bit of force.

"You wouldn't have even made it (poke) past the first task (poke) if it wasn't for me (poke) you big(poke)…you big(poke)…you big jerkbender!" she said with an extra forceful poke.

"Well If I'm a jerkbender than you are the bossiest person on the planet!" He said with a big circular gesture. He put his hands on his hips, mimicking Katara's usual hopeful speech pose and said in a high voice that was meant to be an imitation of her brisk bossy tone_. "Obviously you goose! You are so wrong! I am so right!"_ He knew he'd gone too far then. She look at him so shocked and sad and he wished he could take it all back and say he was sorry, he was just mad and sore and cranky and she shouldn't pay any attention to the things he said.

"I'm just looking out for your best interest you moron, because you incapable of looking out for them yourself. You are so impulsive! You never think anything through and that's what got us into this giant pit of doom!" she said as she threw her hands up in the air top illustrate their giant pit of doom predicament. Then she stalked away from him to the other side of the pit. She turned around and put her hands on her hips in an unconscious mimicry of what he'd done just a second before.

"I don't even know why I came along. I shouldn't even want to hang around you. I shouldn't even want to be your friend after everything you did. After Ba Sing Se!" she yelled shrilly. Zuko felt like she'd slapped him. He'd done so much since Ba Sing Se to make it up to her. To make it up to everyone. It was the single greatest mistake of his life, and that was out of a very long list. He'd always feel a little guilty over the people he'd let down that day. But he'd needed to go back to where he'd started from before he could move forward. They'd talked about it, a very deep talk, one night not long after the final battle. Katara said she really did forgive him and in that instant he thought he'd never been happier. How could she throw that back in his face like this? How many times would he have to apologise for this one mistake?

"Ba Sing Se! How can you bring up Ba Sing Se again! I thought we were past that!" he shouted back at her, feeling more hurt than angry.

"Past that!" she scoffed before adding, "Do you have any idea how much that hurt me!" Zuko was getting a fairly good idea actually. If she was going to keep bringing it up whenever they had a fight, there'd be no talking to her. Zuko was sick of always being made to feel bad about that cavern, when she'd hurt him too.

"Do you know how much you hurt me!" he fired back and her eyes widened in surprise. "You said you could heal my scar and then you just buggered off as soon as precious Aang showed up!" Zuko said surprising even himself. He had never brought that up. Ever. There, now she knew. Now she knew all his secrets. Knew that he still wondered whether she really would have been able to heal his ugly, terrible scar. Knew that he felt an incredibly petty jealousy over Aang that day. Zuko always felt that she would probably always love Aang a little more than the rest of them. She was the one who believed in him the longest, after all. She would always choose Aang over him if it ever came down to it. Not that Zuko blamed her. Zuko would like Aang better too. Aang saved the world. Aang was all smiles and sunshine and easy to love. Zuko wasn't easy to love. He was many things, but he knew he wasn't, probably never would be, easy to love.

"What?…" Katara almost whispered. His comment seemed to have taken the wind out of her sails and her tone has less righteous bluster when she added, a bit indignantly. "That is not was this is about!"

"What is this about then? You tell me! You always do!" Zuko didn't even know what they were fighting over. This was a fight about nothing. This was a stupid fight.

"This is about how you are an impossible, impulsive idiot!" She said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

She'd always needed to have the last word. Zuko normally let her. They hadn't really fought in a long time. Sure this trip they'd had bickering spats over fireflakes and shopping and obscene rocks, but they were more friendly arguments and Zuko always let her win. They had not fought like this since the earlier days of the western Air Temple. Zuko hated fighting with her then and he hated it even more now. But he was just so mad and full of feelings. He felt anger and good indigestion and sadness and guilt and it was all swishing up inside him. He didn't know what to do with any of it.

"Well if I'm an impossible impulsive idiot then you are the biggest control freak I know- and I grew up with Azula." He said and instantly wished he hadn't. That comment he really didn't mean. Katara was nothing like Azula and he knew it and he'd said it anyway.

Katara growled like a bloody savage sabre-tooth-moose-lion and made a noise like 'uuuurgh' and uncorked her bending water and sent an icy wave at him. It sploshed over him. The icy cold gave him a real shock and jolted him out of the moment. They just stood staring at each other for a second. Zuko took in her angry blue eyes, her heavy breathing. He didn't want to fight her. At all. Zuko took a deep breath and physically willed himself calm. He breathed in and out. _Calm_ he told himself. He knew his temper was terrible but there was no way he'd retaliate with bending. He just wouldn't… No matter how mad he was, no matter how much water she threw at him. She'd only wet him, but fire, fire always hurt people.

He clenched his fists and didn't know what to do with himself. If they'd been at the palace he would've stormed off and locked himself in his room until the world stopped spinning and he stopped thinking in big, splotchy, angry colours. He attempted a similar storm off here but was unsuccessful. It is hard to storm off in a pit only twenty feet wide. He could only storm off to the other side of the pit. Twenty feet, that's as far away as he could get from her. So he sat at the opposite side of the pit and folded his arms and tried not look at her. When he did, he noticed she was in a similar pose.

It was going to be a stubborn off.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Katara glared at Zuko, sitting over the other side of the pit over the top of her folded arms. Sulking. That was typical. He was staring off in some other direction and refusing to meet her gaze. She was so mad! How could he say those things to her, after everything! He compared her to Azula for spirits sake! She snorted in frustration. She almost wanted to bend an ice wave at him again.

No, she didn't, she corrected herself. She didn't really. He sat over there, looking miserable, all wet and occasionally shivering. The fire he held in his hands wasn't drying his clothes out and the sun had gone down and it had gotten cold. Katara shivered too. She could go over there, dry him off and they could snuggle and then they'd both be warm.

No! She couldn't do that because he was an impossible, impulsive idiot who made her so mad. He made her feel these extremes emotions. Now she felt anger, obviously, when just a few hours ago she felt like he was the sweetest boy she'd ever know. She'd wanted to take him home with her, for spirits sake! How could he make her feel these two extremes in one day?

He hadn't bended back at her, but just shot her this incredibly hurt look and turned away. Katara would have preferred a fire blast to duck. That look was wounded, sad and disbelieving all in one. He'd given her a similar look when she brought up Ba Sing Se.

She'd always thought it was her trump card. A way to stop all arguments. Zuko would always feel bad enough about it to just start apologizing and then she could magnanimously forgive him again and the fight would be over. They'd had a big conversation, not long after the war, mostly Zuko just apologizing in his Zuko way. They hadn't spoken of it since. It was almost a rule between them that they wouldn't bring it up again. Katara thought she would never, ever mention it again, unless pushed. Well she'd been pushed today and he'd pushed right back.

He still thought about her promise to heal his scar. That had blown Katara away with surprise. He'd never said. Katara remembered the feeling of his scar, rough and lumpy, beneath her hand. It was the first time she'd touched him as a friend. She had just left. She never knew he'd even been hurt by that, still thought about that. He played that one close to the chest.

She wouldn't feel sorry for him. He turned on her then, like he'd turned on her now she thought. But a little voice in her head, which sounded almost like her mother said no. No, he'd been lost and confused and had acted impulsively. Like he always did. Like he was doing now. Lashing out and sulking. Katara was the same. She did the same thing. Sokka always teased her about her temper when they were kids. She knew she'd been equally to blame for their fight today, but she would not be the first one to apologise. Not this time.

What was she doing, sulking over here? This was Zuko, who'd taken lightening for her. She shuddered to think about it actually. How close she came to losing him. Zuko who smiled shyly and laughed rarely but always had a little grin just for her. Zuko who had nightmares and bought her dragonberries and carried her up cliffs and knew all the stars for navigation but none of the starsigns. Zuko who believed in oracles even while he dismissed them as stupid. Zuko with as many moods as an autumn day. Zuko who she'd come to care for in a way that she had never felt about anyone.

She knew she could be overbearing, but Zuko had always just seemed to accept that about her. He let her win every time they bickered. How could he call her bossy? Could he see that everything she'd done on this stupid quest had been for him? She wasn't in this giant pit of doom for her_ health_ after all. She just wanted to look after him. His impulsiveness did worry her. That had been true. Even if she said it in anger, it was true. He'd nearly died in front of her twice due to his own impulsiveness. Once leaping onto those airships at the western air temple to fight Azula and once during the Agni Kai. (Maybe his proximity to Azula made him stupider and more reckless.) If anything happened to him she'd just never get over it. He needed looking after, whether he would admit or not. Couldn't he see that's all she wanted to do?

"Katara?" his voice called across the clearing interrupting her thoughts. His eyes were full of apologies but he looked away when she met his gaze. "Katara, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean what I said. I'm really grateful you came and.." Katara had gotten up and crossed the space between them to thrown her arms around him before he could even finish his sentence. She held him tightly and he wrapped his arms around her with his big hands rubbing her back soothingly. They held each other for a long time. It was long enough to count as an embrace.

"I'm really sorry." He whispered, his breath hot in her ear.

"I'm sorry too." She whispered back.

0o0o0o0o0o0

How could she bring up Ba Sing Se? How could she? It was so unfair! After everything Zuko had done to make it up to her. After everything he'd done for her. He would do anything for her. He'd already taken lightening for her for spirits sake! What more could he do? She could just throw all his past mistakes in his face just like that. Didn't she know how bad he felt? She said she did, she said she'd forgiven him and he believed her. Maybe she didn't really forgive him. Maybe she really did hate him deep down. Maybe all that Zuko had started hoping for was ridiculous. Maybe she'd never care about him the way that he cared for her.

He'd just spoken without thinking. Speaking without thinking, doing things without thinking. That was what Katara had accused him of and she was right, he always did. He never meant to hurt the people he loved, but sometimes he got so mad and words just came out. He'd compared her to Azula…bollocks it all… She'd never speak to him again and they'd just stay in this hole glaring at each other and Zuko wouldn't know how to make it better.

He'd really hurt her when he'd gone on about her bossiness. He hadn't meant it, well, maybe he had a little. She was a bossy boots. If all the really bossy people in the land got together, Katara would be their queen; she would be given a large scepter of bossiness which she would find inferior and then she'd go find the scepter maker and tell them how to make a better one. Her bossy skills were unparalleled anywhere. The girl told the sphinx how to riddle, for goodness sake. Secretly, he kind of liked her bossiness, how take charge she was, how caring.

Then he remembered how young Katara had been she had lost her mother. How she'd had to become mother to her small family. She'd coped with all that by being a bit bossy, because her mother had been a bit bossy and Katara had wanted to be like her as much as possible. Zuko had just thrown all that back in her face like a giant jerk. She was right. He was a jerk bender.

He looked over at her and she was staring off at the other side of the pit. He was going to have to apologise, maybe a million times. He had never meant to hurt her feelings. He started framing an apology. Katara had always just seemed to understand so much of what he wanted to say without him having to actually verbalise it.

"Katara, I'm sorry." She looked up in surprise with shocked expression on her face. He couldn't meet her eyes suddenly. He looked away and started apologizing some more "Katara, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean what I said. I'm really grateful you…" he hadn't noticed her get up and hurry over until she was right on top of him, her slender arms wrapping him up in a hug. He held her close and breathed her in. It felt like he could breathe properly again. He whispered how sorry he was in her ear and she whispered back. She was sorry too.


	15. Porridge and mud wrestling

Authors note: I have terrible spatial skills. I have no idea about measurements. And I'm an aussie, so I'm used to the metric system. To me a foot is what comes at the end of your leg. I tried using feet last chapter. I thought twenty feet was around ten meters, but I have since been told I am wrong about this. This is why I measure the height of the pit in Zukos, because I reckon that'd be a common measurement we can all picture! (It is two Zukos high)

Many of you have asked for an uninterrupted moment and I hope you are not disappointed!

Feedback is lovely and thanks to everyone who gives it! You guys are fabulous.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

He woke first again as usual. Katara was wrapped around him again, as usual. But he was getting better at getting up without waking her. He didn't want to wake her, especially since they'd just gotten back on good terms. Last night they had just sat together, with Zuko's back against the cold wall of the pit, and Katara leaning back into him like he was a comfy chair, her head just under his chin. He'd wrapped his jacket around them both and she sat snugly in the circle of his arms. They had been officially snuggling. There was no denying it now. They were snuggly people who liked to snuggle. Even worse, their snuggling had graduated from the sleeping bag to the fireside. Did this mean that soon they would snuggle in the harsh light of day? Zuko didn't want to test this theory yet. He wanted to find a way out of this hole.

He extricated himself from the sleeping bag and immediately starting looking for a way they could get out of this hole. It was not so very deep a pit. It was only deep enough to keep them stuck. It would be the height of two of him put together. If he had a second Zuko to stand on his head, second Zuko would be able to reach the edge of the pit and make a break for freedom. It would be an easy climb if there was anything at all to grab onto. Zuko walked around the edge of the pit again, feeling the smooth walls with his hand. There wasn't anything for climbing. Well, that was unfortunate. He could try fly with his fire bending like Azula could, but he'd never been able to do it properly and he wouldn't want to risk it with Katara. He'd seen too many accidents.

Zuko was starting to feel really frustrated. There must be a way to do this. He had to focus and think outside the box. What did they have then? What resources could they use? Only Katara's water skin really and each other. Well that wasn't so bad, they were both master benders.

Katara was still fast asleep. She should get her sleep. Who knew what terrible, weird or wacky things could happen to them today. So he wouldn't wake her up. But he was so awake and he wanted to talk to her and she was just sleeping like a lump that liked to sleep a lot. And snore every so slightly. Maybe he should wake her up. No, bad idea. Maybe he should do something constructive, like get a start on breakfast. Katara liked people who did constructive things, instead of loafing about. And the smell of breakfast might wake her up.

They didn't have any dragon berries left, but there was a bag of oats the size of his head, presumably for making porridge. Boo. Zuko hated porridge. He contemplated cooking up another savoury stew, like the one they had last night but decided against it. Firstly because his stew would no doubt be found inferior to Katara's, secondly because it would take way too long and thirdly Katara had _Views _about breakfast. Katara had _Views_ about a lot of things, but she'd been especially strident about breakfast this trip. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day and should have something fruity and something grainy and some tea. Certain things, like porridge, were breakfast food and couldn't be eaten at any other time. Anything too meaty or spicy or savoury was a lunch or dinner food. Fireflakes should never be eaten, ever, because they were ridiculously nasty, but they certainly shouldn't be eaten for breakfast.

Zuko could chop veggies, make dumplings, and barbeque meats. That was the sum total of his culinary skills. He was fairly satisfied with them. But they were insufficient when it came to make porridge. Zuko had a lot of porridge on his ship and he'd always hated the congealed, almost gelatinous texture and nasty flavour. That dull gray colour looked like solid unhappiness with lumps in it. Tasted like it too. As a result he'd never had much interest in porridge, much less how to go about making it. Zuko made a fire and mixed the oats and water and stirred. So far so good. He let it burn a bit on the bottom so if would have that nasty burnt taste that porridge always had.

The smell seemed to have woken Katara, because she lifted her head from the sleeping bag and mumbled "five more minutes" before she rolled over and said "Zuko, what are you doing?" sounding a bit irritated at being woken.

"Making porridge" he replied. It was looking and smelling like the porridge he used to have, so he figured he was on the right track.

"That devilish smell cannot possibly be porridge." Katara mumbled and then looked over at him.

"Well, it is." he said and went back to stirring. Her eyes went wide and she got up like a jolt and rushed over. No doubt because the opportunity to be bossy had presented itself and Katara never let one of those pass, Zuko thought.

"What have you done to it?" she exclaimed liked she'd come across him stomping on kittens. "It looks like congealed unhappiness with lumps in it." She said as she gave it a stir, looking at the mixture with disdain.

"Isn't that what all porridge is like?" Zuko asked baffled.

"No!" Katara admonished firmly before asking; "What the hell kind of porridge have you been eating?"

"Navy Porridge. They served it every morning on the ship when I was chasing you guys."

"You know, this explains so much." She said with more sarcasm and another disdainful stir. "If you were starting everyday eating _this,_ no wonder you were so cranky." She said and lifted the spoon, almost to her mouth, but one sniff made her turn away in disgust, with a face that said _Oh, that is rank._ Zuko wanted to point out that there were actually many other, more legitimate reasons why he was so cranky back then, but he didn't think that was Katara's point. She seemed to have collected herself and was eyeing the spoon like she was about to challenge it to an Angi Kai.

"It's okay; I think I can fix it." She said and rifled through their supplies until she found their sugar. She added most of the sugar to the mix before Zuko could say "Wait! I was saving that." She stirred and added a bit of cinnamon and handed him a knife and an apple and told him to chop it finely. He sliced it finer than paper and she eyed his progress looking a little amused for the first time since they had fallen into the pit. The porridge didn't smell or look like it was solidified bitterness and dirt anymore. Katara served it in bowls and handed one to him. It didn't taste terrible either. It didn't taste great, but it wasn't dreadful.

"I have a theory." Katara stated simply, while staring at her porridge.

"About porridge?" Zuko asked a little bemused.

"No!" Katara exclaimed and looked at him like he was an idiot. "About this" She said with a gesture around the pit. "Us and the" she paused here and seemed to search for the right word. In the end she settled for putting down her bowl and making to claws with her hands and mimed them fighting. "…Rar" she finished a little lamely. Us and the rar? Oh no. Zuko's ineloquence was rubbing off on her! Now both of them would just blather at each other and nobody would make any sense. She shook her head as if to clear it.

"I think this pit is affecting our moods and making us cranky." She said firmly after a second.

"Or maybe we are cranky because we are trapped in a lame pit and eating porridge?" Zuko countered.

"I know _I'm_ not normally this cranky" she said a little self righteously before remembering to add… "And neither are you."

"I dunno, I can be pretty grumpy." Zuko replied.

"That's true." Katara said with a smirk. "But grumpy is different to cranky."

"I can be pretty cranky too then." Zuko said because he was feeling strangely contrary this morning.

"Anyway my point still stands. This pit is making us cranky with each other." She said and shot him a meaningful look. Zuko felt a little crankier than usual, but he'd just put it down to their terrible situation and the porridge.

"Well, we should try and get out of it quickly then before we have another ..rar" Zuko said and copied the claw hand action Katara had done a few moments before. She raised her eyebrow at him as if she was uncertain if he was making fun of her. The silence grew. She was looking at him expectantly.

"Any ideas?" she asked finally.

"I thought about climbing us out again, but there's no way." Zuko offered uselessly. Without any hand or footholds at all, it would be impossible.

"What about flying with your firebending?" Katara asked pointedly.

"Never mastered it and I wouldn't want to crash and injure us. Then we'd be trapped, crashed, injured and cranky." Zuko said listing all the terrible consequences off on his fingers.

"How about something with waterbending?" he asked. Why should the firebender have to do all the work anyway?

"Like what? There's no water in here besides what we used for cooking." She said looking about the pit kind of forlornly.

"Didn't we pass a river really close to here?" Zuko said and saw her visibly brighten. "Could you sense the water and bend it in here? We can both swim, so you'd just have to fill the hole up and we'll float to the top."Zuko said, feeling a little impressed with his plan, but Katara was making a frowning face.

"No, that wouldn't work." She said sadly. Boo. "I'd only be able to bend a thin trickle in and that would take too long." She said looking down at her bowl and if she would find inspiration there. Zuko did the same. They were good study clay bowls. Clay. There was an idea there. Zuko's brain started to work quickly. He thought of Ba Sing Se and how they got their tea sets from a potter. Zuko had seen how he made them. He would shape the mud and put it in an oven. Mud then fire.

"I have a good idea!" Zuko exclaimed like he was shouting out eureka.

"A _good_ idea? That must be a new experience for you" Katara said really sarcastically. Zuko made a face at her. Fine! Be that way, he thought crankily. Her eyes went a little wide and she apologized immediately.

"Sorry. This pit makes me bitchy." She said with a gesture at their surroundings.

"Right, blame the pit." Zuko said with equal sarcasm.

"It is the pit!" Katara insisted.

Zuko gave her a look that said _if you say so miss bitchy sarcastic-pants _with his eyes while he said "Look do you want to hear my idea or not?" with his mouth.

"Okay. Dazzle me with your brilliance." Katara said with more sarcasm, she seemed to catch herself and seemed about to apologize again but instead just shrugged. "It's the pit, I tell you." Zuko choose to ignore that. If his idea worked, they'd be out of this cranky inducing hell-hole quickly.

"You know how they make clay stuff. It's just mud that's been set of fire. We've got mud and fire. If you waterbend a trickle of water in to made muddy sludge, could you bend that into a shape?" He asked.

"Yes, easily." She scoffed.

"Well if you do that, and bend it into like a ramp or some stairs out of here, then I can set it with my firebending. Like clay being fired in a kiln." He explained with a smile. He might not be logical, but he could be clever sometimes.

"Would that hold for very long?" Katara asked a little dubiously.

"It'd last long enough for us to get out." Zuko was sure it would. He was a fast runner after all.

"That is actually kind of clever." Katara said with a smile and without a trace of sarcasm.

They packed up their bags, so they'd be ready to run when the clay had set. Zuko figured that after he'd blasted it with fire, Katara could put some water on it and see if it melted back into mud. If it didn't then it would be cool enough to walk on and it should be strong enough to hold them if they made a quick dash for it.

Katara had held up her hands and had a look of deep concentration on her face. It was easy for Zuko to connect with his element because his fire came from his own body, but it would probably be a bit trickier for Katara because she needed to see her element or at least have it in abundance around her. It was true that water was everywhere, but this sort of thing was much easier if you could see it. The water was trickling in slowly. So slowly. Zuko felt his heart sink as he watched it. How long would this take? If the last task was a test of logic, was this task actually a test of patience? If it was, Zuko was failing.

He started trying to 'help' Katara the way she so often 'helped' him, by calling out advice. Explaining how firebenders connect with their element. How that could be applicable to water and make it easier for her. If she would just listen. He started many sentences with "Katara ,I think it would be better if you…" or "With firebending I just…." If he had been paying more attention he probably would have noticed that with each 'helpful' suggestion Katara's frown deepened a little more. If he had been paying more attention, Katara flinging a fistful of mud at him would not have come as a surprise.

"When I'm trying to connect with fire I.." SPLAT! Katara, without breaking concentration from the stream of water, had backhanded a giant glob of mud his way. In hit him in the torso and covered one of his favourite shirts in mud.

"Oi, I was only trying to help" He yelled and in a fit of extreme immaturity, he picked up a handful of mud and threw it back at her. It splattered all over her dress with a loud splat. That was a mistake. A big one. Silence filled the pit for a second before Katara took a deep breath.

"That's it!" she said and made a frustrated little yell, dropped her hands and ran at him and tackled him into the mud like a charging komodo rhino. Oh Calamity! There was much ado and inelegant struggling. Mud went everywhere. They'd both were wrestling without restraint. Zuko stopped struggling so much because he'd actually started to kind of, maybe, sort of, enjoy it. Then he was enjoying it very much…Then he was enjoying it _too much_ and had to think of his uncle smelly shoe again in a vain attempt at keeping himself under control. What? Zuko was only human and a hot girl was wiggling all over him in the mud. Goodness! Now she was straddling him and Zuko's brain officially left the building. Was he a big weirdo for enjoying this so much, the way the mud made Katara's clothes stick to her and the feeling her grinding up against him. He was loving every second of it and that made him worry for his state of mind. Surely he shouldn't enjoy rolling around in the mud with her this much. No one should enjoy rolling around in the mud this much.

After a bit of struggling, Katara had ended up on top of him, straddling his stomach with her legs, her hands pinned his shoulders to the ground and she was smiling triumphantly. He was smiling too, but probably a bit more lustfully, if he was being honest. Her face was red from exertion and she was breathing hard and their faces were so close together that he could feel each panting breath she took. She looked like a goddess. A very muddy, very infuriated goddess.

"You were right! You were right!" he called out her three favourite words in an effort to mollify her. It seemed to work. She was smiling at him without much anger. "I always am." She replied with a grin and then a confused look crossed her face.

"What was I right about?" She asked, her face was still pretty close.

"This pit is making us crazy." He said and looked into her eyes which were so close and so blue. The mention of the pit seemed to draw her back to the present moment, their surroundings, their regrettable trapped-in-a-muddy pit situation. Their very, err, compromising position. She looked down and it seemed almost to surprise her that she was straddling him. She got up very quickly and made a lame attempt at rearranging her clothes. It looked like she was blushing furiously under all that mud.

"I should get back to bending some stairs." She said and concentrated on the mud like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Katara wasn't prone to mud wrestling, except with Toph and that didn't count, because Toph brought out the mud wrestler in everybody. But she'd been so mad and she'd just tackled him and these things happen okay. This pit was making them crazy! She was definitely right about that. She knew that Zuko just thought she was being extra bitchy today, but it had to be the pit. It just had to. She'd been feeling extremely cranky ever since she landed and it just wasn't like her. She was the one who always gave soppy speeches about hope after all. Maybe Zuko couldn't tell when they were in a cranky inducing space because he was always so cranky anyway.

She just felt like there was heaviness in the form of a sad disgruntled feeling, that had settled over her chest. It had lifted a few times, very briefly. This morning when she'd give Zuko that apple to slice finely and he took to the task like it was what he was_ made_ for. Then they'd been, well, _wrestling_, and his face was so close and he was smiling at her and his eyes were that beautiful bright amber colour that she loved. Katara wanted to do things _to_ him, no, _with_ him. Katara could tell he'd been thinking the same sort of thoughts she was thinking. She used to believe he was hard to read, but he really wasn't. Or maybe she was getting better at understanding all the things he wasn't saying.

Then he yelled out that she was right. Oh, she loved those words. She couldn't remember what she was right about, but she loved hearing them anyway. And he'd looked at her, with his face covered in mud and a big, kinda lusty smile and Katara found that even though they were trapped in a pit and she was really irritated, she couldn't be cranky at him. There were just too many other feelings in the way.

She got this feeling, stronger than any good indigestion she'd felt before, whenever Zuko smiled at her lately. She didn't know how much longer she could resist giving into it. Or if she even wanted to. She didn't even really know why she was holding off. She wanted him, she was pretty sure he wanted her. They could be wonderful together. But a voice in the back of her head told her it was too hard, they were too different, it would never work out in the long term. Better not to start on a path that would only lead to disaster.

Fire and water would never be a good mix.

Katara shouldn't be thinking about that. She should just concentrate on holding the rough mud stairs in place while Zuko aimed a super hot jet of fire at them on the other side. He'd been so worried about burning her, because he had to use super hot fire to set their mud stairs, that he'd made her stand on the far opposite end with a little water, well, mud-bended wall to stand behind. It took all of her ability to hold both structures in place. Which was good, because it gave her concentration something to focus on.

Zuko pronounced himself satisfied after a minute or maybe an hour, Katara couldn't be sure. She was lost in lusty, pervy thoughts again as she watched him. She threw her bending water at their newly made stairs and it hissed a little as it hit the hot surface. The stairs didn't dissolve. She bent another layer of water at the stairs to cool them down, so they could walk on them. The stairs still held. They looked at each other and nodded, then grabbed their packs and made a run for it together. They were holding hands while they climbed their creation. It wasn't necessary anymore, to hold hands, but it really felt nice.

Soon they were at the top of the pit, standing on the grass. Katara didn't want to spend her time look down at the pit when she was in a beautiful field full of flowers. They'd made it! It had worked! They'd worked together and gotten out. Katara felt such a wave of relief hit her. She was out of that hellhole and the irritated heavy feeling she'd felt in her chest had evaporated, almost like it had never been. Zuko was standing next to her, his hand in hers and slight smile of his face. The world was bright and beautiful and full of possibilities and wonderful things again. She tugged his hand a little and they walked away from the edge together.

"We made it! We're out." He said and looked really happy. And really muddy. But mostly happy. Maybe he was feeling that same feeling of heaviness lifting and happiness returning. Or if not happiness, at least his normal level of moodiness.

"We make a good team." She said and smiled back. And they were standing right across from each other holding hands and smiling. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her stomach was flipping out. It was beyond good indigestion. It was incredible get-your-body-over-here-so-I-can-do-naughty-things-to-you-now indigestion. She felt the urge to just lean forward and do all the things she'd always wanted to do.

"Katara, I was wondering…." Zuko began and he was looking and her shyly and hopefully and a bit scared all in one. She knew what he wanted to ask. She knew what her answer was. The monkey wouldn't be back for hours to interrupt them. She wasn't going to wait anymore.

"Oh for goodness sake!" she said fondly and grabbed his face and kissed his stubborn, sweet mouth


	16. A frolic and a picnic

Authors note: well lovely readers, if you have made it this far with me then a million thanks! If you have read and reviewed this story, then a billion thanks, if you have left two or more reviews then a trillion thanks! This chapter is a short sweet little one trying to capture their first kiss(es). I haven't really written any kisses (unless I could find a way to make them ridiculous), so this is me experimenting a bit and I hope you all enjoy it.

Without further ado….

0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0oo0o0o0o0o0

Wow.

Oh my goodness!

Her tongue can do that?

Wow

That tickles.

Kissing Katara was, hands down, the most wonderful, incredible thing he'd ever experienced. His head was full of a happy, blissful buzzing noise and he couldn't think properly and he didn't even care. If he did nothing else for the rest of his life but kiss her and maybe occasionally stop to eat and sleep, then he'd die happy.

They had relocated to the river 'to get cleaned up' which as it turns out, was code for 'lets take off most of our clothes and frolic in water together. They'd taken off their muddy clothes and now those were rinsed and hanging over some bushes. They were swimming in their undergarments together and it was like that day, at the waterfall, but better. Because there was kissing. They'd washed each other and he got learn a few things about her that he'd had no idea about. She was ticklish behind the knees, she liked it when he kissed her neck and her tongue must have been at least triple jointed.

He got confirmation on things he's started to suspect. Katara kissed passionately, she liked to wrap her legs around him as she did so and she liked to run her hands up and down his back. She liked to tickle him when he least suspected it.

She'd gently combed her hands slowly through his hair, trying to get the last of the mud out. It was much more difficult in Zuko's case, because the heat from his fireblast had almost baked the mud to his hair. But she went about her task with a quiet sincerity and he'd looked up at her with what was probably a very soppy expression, and knew he'd never seen anything more beautiful. She looked at him then and smiled sweetly and bent her head to press the tiniest of kisses to the top of his scar. Zuko would remember that moment forever.

It hadn't been like this with Mai or with Jin. Kissing them hadn't made him feel like this. Like he could do anything, like the world was perfect, like he'd never want anything more ever again. They hadn't made him feel like he could burst with happiness. Kissing her, it almost felt like firebending did to him. It was pure exhilaration. Warm and strong and unstoppable.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

They would never get anything constructive done ever again, Katara was sure of it. They'd just lie here and make out, stopping occasionally to eat and sleep. She was okay with that plan. They'd moved from the river to the meadow and were lying in the sun making out while their clothes dried. _As if we'll be putting those back on anytime soon! _Katara thought to herself. Katara's sleeping bag unbuttoned all the way to they'd laid it out like a picnic blanket. She was learning things about Zuko she'd never even known she didn't know. He was ticklish under his arms. His ticklish laugh was a cheeky teehee. He liked it when she kissed his nose. He loved it when she did that thing with her tongue.

It had never been like this for her. She'd never felt this kind of hunger to get closer, closer than was physically possible, with any of the other boys she kissed. Granted she'd only kissed three boys, Aang, Jet and Haru. Their kisses, which were tender and chaste, rough and surprising, or new and shyly sweet, had paled in comparison to this. Haru, her first, she'd just been experimenting, because she was lonely and in prison and he was there and he had a crush on her and these things happen. Jet, she'd been infatuated with him, but he hadn't ever made her feel this safe and happy. Aang, she did love him, really she did. But she'd never feel this for him. You couldn't force or fake this. This was different. This was special.

This feeling he stirred up in her, it felt like waterbending on a quantum level. Between her and Zuko was this incredible chemistry. This push and was a balance between them. This, with him, just felt right to her in such a fundamental way. She didn't have the words to explain it. Words got in the way sometimes, especially with Zuko.

_Some time later….._

Eventually they had to stop kissing and it had been sad to break apart. But it was well past lunch time and they'd only had Zuko's ridiculously bad porridge for breakfast. When they were back in the firenation palace and had more time and weren't so horny, she would show him how to make it properly.

She'd felt hungry and horny and she didn't know which one would win out in the end, but then her stomach had grumbled and Zuko had wanted to feed her That Very Instant so that she wouldn't be hungry anymore. Lunch had been a saga to prepare and eat because they kept pausing and being distracted by non-lunch-related things. Zuko could be pretty damn distracting when he put his mind to it. Katara was right. Nothing constructive would ever be done by either of them, ever again. Eventually, by some miracle, dumplings had been cooked and eaten, tea had been made and drunk and now they were back to their regularly scheduled program of making out some more. Katara wondered what happened if she touched zuko right there. Ooh he giggled. So he was ticklish there too. She did it again and in the ensuing fracas both of them missed the sound of footsteps approaching.

"Hem hem" came a cough from above them. Tim the wise monkey had reappeared and he was smiling, as much as a monkey can, gleefully. He rocked backwards and forwards on his heels while Zuko and Katara sprung away from eachother, both blushing furiously. "Am I interrupting?" he asked snidely.

"No" They both said in unison and looked at eachother and blushed anew. Like they were naught kids caught with their hand in the pastry jar.

"Shame, I like interrupting." Tim said evenly. Katara knew from experience. Had he been doing that on purpose then? Interrupting them? She'd always thought it was terrible coincidence. This was ridiculous, Katara thought. She wasn't ashamed of this. She wasn't ashamed of them. Especially not for the amusement of some interrupting monkey wearing pants. Zuko, beside her, reached for her hand and squeezed. She squeezed back.

"Would you two like to continue with the quest?" Tim asked while he gestured towards the path.

"Or continue with…" he made a rather rude hand gesture in their general direction. Katara felt a little scandalized. She liked the kissing very much, but she didn't know if she was ready for _that._ Maybe she would be, if it was with Zuko, because everything had felt so right with him. But she wanted more time to think and be sure. She'd definitely want to be in a bed for that. And they'd have to have a conversation beforehand. Using actual words. And that conversation couldn't take place here, in front of this interrupting monkey. Anyway, Zuko would want to continue with the quest. This would be the last task after all.

"Quest." She said a little disgruntledly. "But would you give us sec to put some clothes on, you bloody interrupting monkey." She was still in her undergarments after all. You couldn't quest in those.


	17. Who's afraid of an irate snow goose?

Authors note: Katara, like me, is scared of geese. I hate those bastards. I know it's irrational, but I can't help it. It's the way they hiss and honk and waddle. Friggin geese. And I wanted to have one of them scared of something really lame and Katara was my girl for this one. Mostly because I imagine that if Ozai were ever inclined to tell little Zuko a bedtime story, it would be a really, really messed-up story full of pain and angst and suffering. Sweet dreams.

The Akuma: apparently according to my friend google, Akuma means demon in Japanese. My thinking for these creatures: well, at first, I was a little stuck for what could be ridiculously scary enough. Then I saw _Pan's labyrinth._ Have you seen _Pan's labyrinth _? if you haven't, go! Go now! Stop reading and get thee to you nearest video shop. It is breathtakingly beautiful and really disturbing and has a kind of a bummer ending (depending on your point of view), but I just floved it. Word of warning, it is extremely violent/horrifying in places and I missed several key scenes because I had taken refuge behind my couch covering my eyes and ears until the scary things went away. It is apparently meant to be a fairytale for grown ups and this only underlines my belief that most fairytales are kind of messed up. But it was brilliant.

*End gush*

Anyway for those of you, who have seen _Pan's Labyrinth_, remember the 'pale man' monster. Yeah, that thing! How could you forget? I saw that scene and was ridiculously frightened. When reading about the Akuma, imagine the 'Pale Man Monster' only unkillable, and made of FIRE. Chomp chomp indeed.

For those of you who haven't seen _Pan's Labyrinth_ and are sufficiently curious enough to see what these monsters look like, let google be your friend.

Without further ado: We have come to the final task!

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"I was very pleasantly surprised you two were able to complete the second task so quickly. I thought the Pit of Aggravation would definitely pose too difficult a challenge for you two." Tim said conversationally as they walked through the forest. Katara and Zuko trailed behind him, holding hands and glaring daggers at him.

"The Pit of Aggravation?" Zuko couldn't help himself. He had to ask.

"Yeah, that hole you both were in. Used to call it the Pit of Despair, because it sounded dramatic_._ But it doesn't really bring on despair does it?" the monkey turned around and grinned at them before he continued his explanation. "It makes folks snappy and peevish at each other. Makes them think negatively. That's why I'm so surprised." Zuko looked over at Katara who was smiling smugly because her cranky-inducing-pit-theory had been justified. Zuko's concentration was on the monkey thought. He thought he detected a sneaky insult in amongst the monkey's explanation.

"Why were you so surprised?" He asked, because he could never leave well enough alone.

"I figured you two would just spend the whole day shouting at each other." Tim said simply with a shrug of his shoulders. They both glanced at each other and smiled and blushed and remembered. There had been a bit of shouting at the start and a bit of mud wrestling later.

"No, we only shouted for a bit." Katara said next to him.

"Yeah, I figured you must have stopped and worked together at some point." The monkey said as if he was thinking out loud. He suddenly stopped and turned around and looked at them both, fully and completely without any sort of snarkiness for a second. The monkey sighed a little. Tim regarded their clasped hands, their slight smiles and nodded a little.

"It takes a strong bond to overcome the Pit of Aggravation. To get past that, to get past all that ill feeling, and be able to work together. It's… look it's…." Tim seemed, uncharacteristically, lost for words for a second. "It's very special. I don't see it very often." The monkey said a little wistfully with an almost gentle look in his eye. He paused for a minute and seemed lost in thought. This was a different side to the monkey that they hadn't seen before. Did the monkey need a moment? This strange mood evaporated almost as quickly as it had come about. Tim flashed them a big, cheeky smile.

"And I didn't expect it from a pair of _friends_ like yourselves, that's all." Tim said sarcastically. Ah there's the Tim they knew and loved. Well not really loved. Knew and got incredibly frustrated with. The monkey turned around and kept walking. Katara squeezed his hand a little and he squeezed back. A talking monkey in pants thought that what they had between them, whatever it was, was special. Zuko was inclined to agree. He looked over at Katara and knew that there was no one else in the entire world he'd rather have by his side for whatever this next task would be.

Suddenly the trees opened up into a large clearing. There was a massive ominous looking hedge that had an opening roughly hewn into in. a placard above the opening said _Labyrinth of Dread_. Well that was promising. Whatever this tasks was, Zuko knew it would be ridiculous.

"Well here we are." Tim said proudly as he pointed at the giant maze. "The final task."

"What is this task to test?" Zuko eyed the maze warily. It seemed like the sensible thing to do when confronted with a hedge called the _Labyrinth of Dread._ It looked like a maze where bad things could happen.

"Nothing really, this task just for my own amusement." Tim said with his eyes twinkly mischievously. Zuko made a dismayed face at the monkey and the monkey smiled back with amusement.

"I'm just kidding angry pants. I can't tell you though. That would defeat the purpose of the task. You have to find the answer for yourself." He said serenely, like he was just asking them to drop off his dry cleaning. Zuko looked at Katara and she gave a slight, imperceptible nod. She was with him, whatever ridiculous thing was in there. Tim coughed to get there attention.

"I can tell you what you'll have to do in the _Labyrinth of Dread_. You'll have to find your way through the maze to the centre. In the centre will be a large clearing and in the large clearing will be an altar and on that altar will be a vase full of liquid. It is my very favourite vase. You must bring me back my favourite vase without spilling a single drop of the liquid." He said ominously. Well that didn't sound too hard. Neither of them were what you'd call clumsy. They could carry a vase no problem. Zuko was feeling a bit relieved, truth be told. He thought it would be something much worse.

"...And you must fight your greatest childhood fear. Angry pants, it's the giant fire breathing Akuma monster for you." Tim said with a nod in Zuko's general direction. "Crazy girl, you will have to face….a rather irate snow goose." Zuko looked at Katara quizzically.

"Snow goose?" He couldn't help himself, he had to ask.

"Akuma monster?" she replied looking equally bemused. The Akuma was probably only a firenation fairytale.

"It's a giant, unkillable, evil fire monster that eats children and firebenders." Tim said helpfully to Katara who had looked a little confused and concerned.

"A What!" She exclaimed in surprise. Before adding a little angrily "Who the hell keeps their favourite vase full of magical liquid in a labyrinth with a giant child-eating fire monster and an evil snow goose?"

"Don't question me with your logic." Tim said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Besides, the snow goose isn't evil. It is only irate." Zuko felt that Tim had missed the salient point of Katara's outburst.

Zuko felt cold horror trickle down his back. Stories of the Akuma had scared the bejeezus of him as a kid. He didn't think he'd ever been more scared of anything. But he could do this. Zuko wanted to find his mother so badly that he pushed the fear aside. To find his mother, he would face an Akuma, if that was what it took. He looked at Katara, she was little irritated but not terrified. More than anything he didn't want her to get hurt. Maybe this was all a stupid mistake. Maybe they should just turn back now. Before he got eaten. By a giant, firebender-eating, friggin eight-foot-tall monster.

"Go in, get the vase and bring it and its contents back here, fight your monsters. Sound simple enough." Tim said like he was giving them a shopping list.

"Everything except the _fight your monsters_ part of it." Katara grumbled next to him. Oh, she had no idea.

0o0o0o0o0

"What is an Akuma and why does it make your face look like that." Katara asked as they went through their packs for things they might need. Zuko's eyes were wide, his face was white and he was looking at his Dao blades a bit distractedly.

"An Akuma is, it's well…it's bad. Like really really incredibly, stupidly scary." Zuko said quickly, Katara was even tempted to say nervously.

"Tell me." Katara said.

"The Akuma is monster in firenation fairy tales. They scare the bejeezus out of bending children everywhere from Ember Island, to Mount Warning. Because they eat firebenders. Like chomp chomp eat." Zuko actually made a little chomping gesture at her. There weren't too many other ways to interpret _chomp chomp_, she thought.

"Well, we are two master benders. We'll be able to fight it."

"I wont be. They're made out of pure white fire. If I firebend at it, it'll just absorb the fire and be stronger. And you can't fight it with regular weapons either because it just incinerates them. And you won't be able to water bend at it because it'll just evaporate all your water and then it will eat us both!" Zuko exclaimed and Katara thought he was being a touch Zuko-dramatic about the whole thing.

"I thought it only ate firebenders?" Katara asked.

"Yeah but I reckon that's only because no one ever offered it a tasty waterbending snack before." Zuko said, somewhat hysterically. If Zuko freaked out she'd freak out. She already felt a surge of mild panic at the idea of confronting a snow goose.

"Hey don't freak out on me! I have to fight a snow goose okay." She retorted. Zuko snapped out of his freak-out about being eaten, long enough to stare at her quizzically again.

"Okay, I have to ask. What is with the snow goose?" He said curiously.

"I just really don't like them okay." Katara said evenly trying to maintain her calm. Zuko raised an eyebrow at her.

"Okay, when I was little my Gran Gran wanted to domesticate some so we could have goose eggs in winter. She built a little pen for them and everything. Sokka dared me to pat the big one. It was a bit hysterical from being cooped up and it was bigger than me and it chased me around and Sokka was laughing. I would accidentally water bend when I got scared and there was ice and geese feathers going everywhere and it pecked me really hard and it hissed at me and stop looking at me like that." She said really quickly.

"I can't believe the best waterbender I know is scared of geese." Zuko said a bit disbelievingly.

"Hey! Geese are evil. They hiss, and the peck and at least I'm not scared of an amuka." Katara said a little defensively.

"It's an Akuma and they are giant unkillable firebeathing firebender-eating monsters. That's like ten times scarier than a goose." Zuko said looking really scared and kind of irritated at the same time. Katara walked over to him. She knew it was ridiculous and irrational to be scared of geese, but she couldn't help it. She just was. But Zuko's monster sounded bloody horrifying. Why could he have been scared of something lame, like turtleducks? She took his hand and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I won't let you get eaten." She said in what she hoped was a comforting voice. "I think we'll be fine if we're together." She added and she touched her two waterskins. They were both full; there was enough water in the plants if it was absolutely necessary. She couldn't be anymore prepared and there didn't seem like any reason to linger and freak out. Zuko took a deep breath and looked and the maze and then turned back to her with an unreadable expression on his face. He cupped her face and gave her a long lovely kiss. She wrapped her arms around him and felt a little better. She was sure she could fight a goose now.

"Are you absolutely sure you want to come with me. These monsters. They're bad. I don't want you getting hurt." He said looking at her sincerely in a way that stirred up so many different feelings inside her. He was scared of this thing, but he was going to try and fight it anyway, if that's what it took to find his mother. She didn't think she could be more proud of him than she was right at this moment. If he was going to fight some ridiculously scary firebender-eating monster, she was going to be there.

"Me, leave you?" She said incredulously. "Don't be daft. Of course I'm coming." she said firmly and they started off towards the maze together.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0


	18. the Labyrinth of Dread!

Katara's left hand lightly rested on her bending skin incase of rogue geese or an evil Akuma, She held Zuko's with her right hand. Zuko was informing her of all he knew about the Akuma because she didn't know anything about them. There was no point telling Zuko of the many evils of geese. He already knew all about snow geese. After fifteen minutes what she knew about the Akuma was this: The Akuma were bad. Obscenely ridiculously bad. He'd told her a few stories that he remembered as they picked their way deeper into the maze. Children and occasionally adults got eaten in every single tale. These stories were messed up! Who tells this sort of things to kids anyway?

"So the firenation are really into really dark, creepy fairytales?" she asked quizzically after he'd finished the tale of how little Lei Mai, who wouldn't eat her broccoli, got eaten herself as punishment for this heinous crime.

"Every nation has their creepy tales for scaring kids. How else would you get kids to get up to go to training at 5 in the morning? Or eat broccoli?" Zuko replied.

"By making it tasty?" Katara retorted. Surely that was the non-psychologically scarring solution to the broccoli conundrum. No one had ever frightened her into eating broccoli, that's for sure! "Anyway we don't have any stories like that in the water tribe." She continued but then stopped herself with a gasp as she remembered some of Gran Gran's tales. Stories like Little Blue Coat and the Big White Wolf.

"Okay… so we have a few creepy stories" she'd allow him that. But the water tribe stories were different. " But my Gran Gran didn't tell them to us just to scare us and they all end happily without anyone getting eaten, or if they do get eaten… they get better." She said firmly. Little Blue Coat had gotten eaten and she'd lived. Zuko mouthed 'get better?' at her with a very perplexed look on his face. "Why did your dad even tell you these stories?" She huffed.

"For my own good." Zuko said simply in response to her question. Katara made a sad, confused face at him. "It was to encourage me to stop setting things accidentally on fire. You know how you would accidentally water bend when you were scared? I used to accidentally firebend… when I felt really happy. Akumas were meant to go after kids who couldn't control their firebending. They were the first to be eaten." Zuko explained. He paused for a second and looked about in thought. They almost never spoke about former Firelord Ozai. Zuko never seemed to want to talk about him and Katara already knew more about him than she'd ever wanted to know so she didn't feel the urge to pry.

"I think he felt that it was the best way to get me to stop accidentally bending." Zuko said after the pause.

"By making you unhappy?" Katara asked. She didn't follow the logic at all.

"No" Zuko said suddenly. "By making me take bending seriously I guess. I dunno." He said with a little frustration. Zuko wasn't good at talking about this sort of thing, she knew that. She waited patiently and if he had any more to say on the subject he would. After a few moments Zuko huffed.

"I mean he was a horrible father most of the time, but once a week, he'd sit down with us and tell me and Azula the stories of the Akuma and…It was kind of nice..." his voice trailed off. She wrapped her arm around his waist and gave him a little squeeze. She heard what he wasn't saying. He'd looked forward to these horrible bedtime stories.

"Did he tell you anything useful in these little bedtime stories, like how to kill it?" she asked as she held him a little closer. He'd never had enough love as a kid.

"Not really. He favored the ones where everyone gets eaten." Zuko said with a rueful smile.

"Of course he did." Katara said with a fair amount of snark. The fact that Ozai had liked stories where everybody died or wished they did, didn't surprise her at all."Well does it have any vulnerabilities? Any weak spots?" she asked more seriously. Zuko thought for a second.

"My mother told us about the avatar who fought them and won." Zuko said after a while.

"Well, Aang's not here." Katara said shuffling her feet. Her first thought had been _thank goodness,_ and she felt somewhat guilty. But really, despite all the ridiculousness, she and Zuko had had a bit of fun together on this quest. This would have been a completely different trip if Aang had come.

"No, I mean… This could be useful. This Avatar, it was a lady, I remember, realized she could bend the fire that _was_ the Akuma. Before people had just bent fire _at _them and that only made them stronger. But she could bend _them _with her avatar-ness_._ And she separated them from their essence… their minds I guess." Zuko trailed off. Katara had picked up on the one salient point that wasn't comforting in Zuko's speech.

"So they're _mindless _child eating monsters? I don't see how this helps our situation!" if these things didn't even have brains you couldn't even reason with them. Not that she put much stock in trying to reason with a giant child munching fire demon. Was it just a munching machine of terror?

"But they have to stay close to their brains. The Avatar, she put their essence into jars and sealed them with avatar-ness and then she hid those jars in the base of Mount Warning and all the Akumas went in there and they haven't been seen since. They say that's the only way to kill an Akuma. By smashing the jar and smashing it's brain." Zuko said emphatically. Katara bit back the urge to tell him that avatar-ness wasn't a word. That wasn't the point of his speech.

"Brain smashing generally does have fatal side effects." Katara said with a slight smile. They could work with that. It could be killed then. At least there was some way of stopping these crazy things. She had a quick think.

"Okay, here's our plan if we run across it. I'll distract it with water bending while you find its brain and smash it." As plans go it was about equal with '_everybody on the count of three!_' but it was the best she could come up with.

"I don't know." Zuko said a bit uncertainly, giving her a long, worried look.

"Well, do you have a better idea?" Katara asked and gave him a worried look right on back. If the thing went after firebenders she just wasn't about to stand idly by while he got eaten. He swallowed and thought.

"Okay, I don't, but..." he started to speak but just at that moment Katara saw the bird from hell just behind him. She gasped. She closed her eyes in horror. She fought the urge to run away. She hated geese and now she was stuck in a maze with one. A very irate snow goose at that. It honked at them, quite menacingly and started to waddle forward. Katara shrieked something that sounded like 'get it away from me!' and took a big step back and fell into the hedge.

The goose honked again.

Bloody geese

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Katara had psyched herself up to deal with this goose. Because it was just a goose. And it was silly to be scared of a goose. A goose wasn't scary. A goose could be dinner! _You silly goose_ was a term of endearment. She was much bigger than a goose. She was going to be the cool about this.

Tragically when confronted by the actual reality of an irate goose, with the honking and the waddling, all coolness fled. And she shrieked and fell into the hedge, like the least cool person in the entire world. If, who ever had previously been the least cool person in the world, could have seen her, they would have shaken their head and said 'you sad sad person' and wandered away to leave her to her own uncoolness. She hated geese!

Zuko stepped between her and the goose and offered out his hand to help her right herself. When she was standing and had brushed herself off, he gave her hand a squeeze and gave her a reassuring look. It was a look that said both '_I'll save you from the goose and deal with this'_ and '_really? It's just a goose'_ simultaneously. He moved her behind him and walked forward and made a funny little swishing motion with his hands.

"Shoo" he said quite loudly and firmly. The goose looked at him and blinked. It defiantly did not shoo.

He shooed it again. The goose just stood there.

He attempted a third shoo and the goose pecked him on the hand. He gave it a small kick. It chomped at his hand again and this time it didn't let go. He yelled in surprise and started shaking his arm about with the goose still attached. Katara felt anger and fear mix up together in her. That bloody goose had bitten her Zuko. He was shaking it about in a most undignified fashion and goose feathers were flying everywhere and it was like a nightmare. A horrible goose filled nightmare. Zuko aimed a little fireblast with the hand the goose was attached to and it let go in fright. It fell and started waddling about in an extremely irate fashion. It started to walk toward Katara and Zuko made a move to stand between her and the goose. But Katara was feeling brave. Katara opened her water skin and bended a huge iceball around the goose. Take that! Friggin goose! Nobody bit her Zuko. Its head poked out from the ball and it honked a few times quiet angrily. Katara ignored it as she stepped around it, giving it a wide berth and went to where Zuko stood examining his hand.

"That thing bit me!" he said crossly.

"That's what geese do. I told you they were evil!" Katara said emphatically as she took his hand. "Here let me see." As she started to examine it. It was bleeding, but only a little. She healed it with a bit of water and then felt a little cheeky. "I'll kiss it better too" she said and gave him the gentlest of kisses on his hand. Which naturally led to kisses in other places. This naturally led to them leaning up against the hedge and getting a little handsy and a little gropey. But it was a bit hard to be romantic and drown out the persistent honking of an irate goose frozen in an iceball only a few feet away. Zuko gently broke the kiss.

"Katara I think we should probably move. I used firebending and that'll attract the Akuma." He said a little ruefully.

"We'll have to face it sooner or later." Katara said simply. She'd fought her monster and conquered her goose-phobia, maybe fighting an Akuma would be good for Zuko. They turned a corner and they were in a large clearing. Seated at the table in the centre of that clearing was the most horrible, horrifying thing Katara had ever seen. It skin was almost too bright to look at and it was sitting with its enormous clawed hands on the table. Katara took it back. Fighting an Akuma would not be a good thing for Zuko. Fighting an Akuma would not be a good thing for anybody.

'Sooner it is.' Katara whispered to Zuko who had gone a funny white colour. He gulped as he looked at it.

The Akuma's head snapped up with alertness. It raised its hands which had eyeballs in the centre of the palms and swiveled them around to look at Zuko. It sniffed the air and roared.

Bloody hell!

0o0o0o0o0o0

Katara had leapt into action quicker than lightening and had water octopus around herself that she was using to strike out at the Akuma which was distracting it. Zuko knew he had to move quickly. He looked up and saw the vase on the crowded table. What had Tim said about the vase? Bring it back to him undamaged.

There was so much stuff on that table, he could probably find and smash the Akuma's brain jar and then grab the vase and he and Katara could get out of this crazy maze. Zuko ran as fast as he could, trying not to even look at the monster. In no time at all his hands had close around the vase. He held the vase loosely in the one hand while his other scrambled through the various sauces and condiments on the table. Bloody hell! Really, what was with all these sauces? Was this for all the firebenders the Akuma planned on eating? Would it think _Zuko'd be nice with a little soy_! as it ate him. Snap out of it! You're not going to be eaten, he mentally admonished himself.

Zuko had to focus. He had to not freak out. He had to think! He had to do this quickly because Katara was in the fight of her life over on the other side of the clearing, which now looked like it was mostly ablaze. He saw her roll on the grass ground unharmed and breathed a sigh of relief. Quick! Think! Which jar looked like it had been sealed by an Avatar and contained the spirit or brain or whatever of a giant Akuma monster.

A realisation hit him with the force of bricks as he looked at the vase in his hands. The liquid sloshed inside it. It was warm, hot even. There was something else, a strange feeling to the way the liquid moved inside the vase in his hands. It was like a strong heart beat. Zuko suddenly knew exactly what he was holding and he had to resist the urge to smash it right then and there. If he did that, he'd never find out what happened to his mother.

Suddenly Katara shrieked in fright and Zuko made a decision in the blink of an eye.

"Oi" Zuko shouted and sent a fireblast in the air. That got the Akuma's attention. It swiveled its horrible head and looked him directly in the eye and charged.

Oh shit!

Zuko didn't really have much of a plan beyond getting its attention. He just wanted to get that thing away from Katara. Perhaps he should have had more of a plan when it came to attracting the attention of a giant firebender-eating monster. But this was for Katara and he never thought rationally if there was a chance she could be hurt. It was why he jumped in front of lightening without hesitation.

This whole thing was stupid. They should never have come. He wanted to find his mother, but not at the expense of Katara's safety. He missed his mother so much and he would have given anything to find her. Almost anything. But if that wasn't possible, if he'd never know and never get closure or get to see her again, then he'd settle for getting them both out of this _labyrinth of dread_ unscathed. The one rationale brain cell not going _GAAAAAAAAAAAAH _was saying_ run away!_ So Zuko ran. Zuko ran, heedless of which direction he was heading, back into the maze. The Akuma followed.

Oh noes!

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_Life is weird_ Katara thought, as she followed the trail of burning destruction. She was now chasing the ridiculous fearsome monster! The normal reaction for most people, including Zuko, would be to _run away_ from the ridiculously fearsome monster. But not Katara. That thing was chasing Zuko and she wasn't going to let it hurt him.

She'd been doing a good job of distracting it. Even though it was all kinds of messed up for a monster. It had claws sharper than knives. It had eyeballs in its hands. It ate firebenders for breakfast. Enough said. She'd formed a water octopus around herself, so it could only get so close. But it was quick and fast and she'd been on hyper alert. She kept flicking it with her water whip. This was really infuriating it. It hated the water. It growled like an enormous snow wolf and lunged for her. She darted out of the way and quickly made another water octopus around herself. It seemed a bit smaller than last time and she'd realized then that everytime she struck out at the Akuna she came back with much less water. Its skin was so hot that the water evaporated on contact. She'd need more water.

So she bended the water out of plants around her and struck again. The beast made another lung for her and she ducked out of its way. It narrowly missed her and collided with the hedge. Suddenly it seemed like her section of the clearing was completely ablaze. The monster, made of pure white fire and the hedge, which was brittle and bone dry as a result of Katara's previous bending, had made a volatile combination. She was surrounded by fire. Katara made a shriek of dismay as it lunged for her again. She rolled out of the way onto the grass.

"Oi" she heard Zuko's voice call from the altar as he aimed a jet of fire in the air. The Akuna looked up suddenly and sniffed the air and charged for him, leaving her completely alone and unscathed. What was he doing? This wasn't the plan. The thing friggin _ate _firebenders. Zuko had run and the thing had chased Zuko and now she was chasing the both of them through a _labyrinth of dread_ that still had a partially frozen goose in it somewhere.

Bollocks to this!

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Zuko had hit a dead end. His breathe was coming in short, sharp gasps and he didn't think he could run anymore. The Akuma was bearing down on him. He'd made up a half formed plan while he was running. If he could find the entrance, he could give Tim the vase and then the task would be done. Tim had got an Akuma in here, he would probably know what to do with it, if it came charging out of the maze after Zuko. He'd always been graceful and he'd been able to run without spilling any of the vase's dark contents. He'd been a bit optimistic that this whole quest would be over and done with by now, but instead he'd taken a wrong turn and ended up in this dead end with a monster. It was right there and he was out of ideas.

"Oi" he heard Katara shout from just behind the monster and suddenly a giant ice shard went through the Akuma's chest. It roared in outrage and turned around. The water melted in an instant and its chest healed, like the ice shard had never been there. It raised its hideous hands. Zuko's heart stopped in horror. There was no way in the entire world that Zuko would let Katara be hurt. He vaguely remembered thinking _Tim is going to be so pissed off_ as he raised his arms over his head and smashed the vase.

Quest schmest.

Wherever his mother was, she hadn't raised him to be the sort of person who let the people he loved get hurt… not when he could stop it. He could live with not knowing, he'd lived with it for years. But he couldn't live without Katara. The vase shattered when it hit the ground.

And the world exploded.

….

Authors note: hello lovely readers! Thanks for reading so far along. We are very nearly at the end. This was the most action-y type chapter and it's my first time trying to write an action scene so I hope it flowed okay for you guys. This whole story has been a wonderful and challenging writing experience. If you guys have had half as much fun reading this as I have had writing it, well then you've enjoyed it immensely.

This chapter was initially very different and covered a lot of versions of the Akuma tales and 'story time with Ozai' in all its warped glory. I do think that no one is a completely 100% bastard all the time. I think Ozai must have had at least some fatherly moments, as messed up as they may be, with both his kids. Zuko and Azula both wanted nothing more than his love and approval and I think that has to come from somewhere. He was very reluctant to give it, but he must have given a tiny speck of it sometimes.

He wouldn't have had much time for either of his children when they were both young (though I think that as Azula got older and started showing more sociopathic tendencies, she may have reminded him of himself and thus he warmed to her). His stories were his way of trying to teach his kids but he would have given them no end of nightmares. I think both Azula and Zuko would have been terrified and Ursa (who would have been in charge of bedtime on all other six days of the week) would have told them the avatar story to comfort them both and let them know that there was a way to defeat their monsters. Ozai would have over heard her telling it one night and there would have been a fight and it would all get very dramatic and there would be angst!

I even wrote out the Avatar tale. Avatar Yang Chen (yeah, her!) and fire lady Zarsa were BFFs and Yang Chen would have come over to the fire nation to help out her bestie and there would be adventure and friendship and monsters would be defeated and all would be well. But it didn't flow with the story so it got the chop!


	19. In your heart

Katara had been blown backwards by what seemed like an explosion without fire. Maybe this was what a sonic blast was? The ground was shaking and her ears were ringing but she was otherwise unharmed. The maze walls had all collapsed, leaving them in a wide flat clearing full of lumps where the hedges used to be. The Akuma disappeared it a puff of smoke and a little girlish sigh, which seemed like a completely anti-climatic end to the freakiest thing she had ever seen. She got up and looked around for Zuko. He was lying on his back a little way away from her. She ran over as fast as her legs would carry her. He groaned and was starting to sit up, so he was okay. She wanted to hug him and shake him and kiss him all at once. She settled for flinging herself at him and holding him close. He sighed into her hair. It was a big heaving sigh of relief. He was fine, she was fine. They were both fine.

But they'd failed. He'd smashed the vase when they'd been so close. Katara knew the main entrance had only been a few seconds away from that dead end, she'd seen it out of the corner of her eye as she'd been running. But Zuko had smashed it, when they'd only been seconds away from success. They had come so far and done so much to fail on the last task.

"Why did you do that you silly goose?" She mumbled into his shoulder, but she held him all the tighter.

"I couldn't let it hurt you." Zuko softly mumbled into her ear. Katara kissed his cheek in response. He was so protective and so sweet and so stupid sometimes. She wouldn't have him any other way. Of course kissing his cheek led to kissing his mouth and then they started making out in earnest. It was an intense and passionate kiss. Which led to many more intense and passionate kisses. It seemed like the logical thing to do after have a life or death experience with a horrible ugly monster that could've eaten one of them. "You are such an idiot. We've come so far." She said when they broke away for a second. A _sweet, lovable, courageous idiot who she adored,_ she thought as she ran her hands through his hair.

"I need you more that I need an answer." He said quietly, not meeting her eyes. That was a serious emotional pronouncement coming from Zuko. He never liked to admit he needed anything. But he'd chosen her over the chance to find his mother and Katara, for once, didn't know what to say. Were they at the serious emotional pronouncements stage already?

They heard a polite cough coming from the side of the clearing. Tim shuffled towards them before she could open her mouth to say a serious emotional pronouncement of her own. The monkey was looking almost apologetic. If Katara had sent someone into a crazy maze to fight a giant fire monster, she'd be pretty damn apologetic too.

"Well, that's very nice to hear Angry Pants… but you'll still get your answer." Tim said with a smile and made a slight bow in their direction.

"But we failed. I failed, I broke the vase." Zuko said a little disbelievingly.

"Yes you did, because you valued your _friend_'s safety more than anything_ I_ could tell you." Tim said profoundly. The monkey sounded much older and bigger and more majestic. The full weight of his words hit Katara.

"You're the Oracle!" she burst out, completely with finger pointing and an incredibly surprised face. No way! Tim their talking monkey in pants was an Oracle older than time and said to know all things. She thought an Oracle would be much more impressive. Or if not impressive, maybe old and wise and kind like Aunt Wu, who had a warmth about her that reminded Katara of her Gran Gran. She'd never expected an Oracle to be a silly, sarcastic and cheeky talking monkey.

"I thought the oracle would be bigger. More impressive." She couldn't help herself. The words just came out. Tim gave her a condescending look.

"Yes, well not withstanding my lack of impressiveness Crazy girl," he said in her direction with his usual snarkiness. He raised his arms and their bags sailed towards them. The grass under them became softer and grew over the lumps where the hedges had been and there was no sign of the huge maze that had been there a second ago.

"I am the Oracle." He announced regally and looking a little smug at his Oracle abilites. "I know I have put you two through some…err…trying situations. I decided long ago, if every a firelord came to me again, they would have to bloody well _earn_ their answer and prove a few things to me…." He paused and took a deep breathe and gave Zuko a long look. Zuko was looking a bit confused.

"I'm not the first firelord who's come here?" he asked curiously. Tim sighed and took a moment to collect himself before confessing.

"I answered a question for a firelord… a long time ago… It didn't work out so great for anybody involved." The monkey said and looked sadly away into the distance again. Katara could almost swear he muttered _friggin Sozin_ under his breath, but she couldn't be sure.

The monkey coughed and the raise himself up to his full height. He turned to Zuko and placed both hands on his shoulders and started speaking quiet solemnly.

"I needed to be sure that you could co-operate with others for a common goal even when you were annoyed with them. I needed to know if you would think creatively about the problems that presented themselves to you. I needed to be sure that whatever answer I gave you wouldn't result in suffering for the whole world. That you would put other's needs before your own in your quest for power…."

"Power? What? This isn't about power" Zuko looked supremely confused at this turn of the conversation and couldn't contain himself from interrupting in surprise. Tim stopped abruptly and lowered his hands and stared and Zuko in a very baffled fashion.

"It's not?" Tim asked looking confused as well. More confused than Zuko. More confused than someone who had wandered into the wrong class and only realized they were studying marital arts and not martial arts halfway through the lesson.

"No." Zuko replied looking equally bemused.

"Are you sure?" Tim asked in the same manner that you would ask someone "are you ill?"

"Yes, I'm bloody sure." Zuko fired back, sounding a little cranky now.

"But you are the new Firelord…" Tim said with an expansive hand gesture as if that would explain everything. It didn't. Tim did the gesture again for reasons Katara couldn't fathom. He waggled his hands above his head in a gesture that was obviously meant to mimic a crown. Zuko just stared at him. Tim cleared his throat and looked around, almost embarrassed.

"Oh…I had assumed you had come to find out something power related….and probably vaguely evil…like how to maintain firenation dominance in these changing times or….How to stay on top…rule your unruly country…crush enemies… obliterate cities…how to bend lightning into the shape of a moose lion….that sort of thing." At each suggestion, Zuko had shaken his head and now the monkey was looking at him in open amazement.

"No. I wanted to ask you where my mother was." Zuko said evenly, almost hopefully.

The monkey looked truly flabbergasted for the first time ever. Then he burst into the loudest laugh Katara had ever heard. It gave her a bit of a fright actually. She jumped out of her skin. Judging from the way Tim was rolling around on the grass and clutching his sides in mirth, Zuko had just made the funniest joke that he had ever heard, possibly the funniest joke in the history of the entire universe. Tim laughed so hard he was almost crying. Interspersed through the laugh, Katara could almost catch intelligible phrases.

"Your mother…this was about your mother! ….All that…for a mother…I put you in the Pit of Despair and you just wanted to find your mum. Faced an Akuna! Labyrinth of dread! Mother!" After what seemed like a very long time a while the monkey's laughter died down. He was almost wheezing from too much laughter and he was still slightly chuckling to himself as he sat up to face them. Zuko looked like he was about to explode with crankiness.

"I'd have only made you cross the mystic bridge if I'd know this was about your mother." Tim said flippantly, in what he obviously believed was a helpful and calming fashion. It wasn't helpful. It wasn't calming. Zuko turned an even angrier shade of red than he had been previously and Katara thought it looked like steam was coming out his ears.

"You made us fight a crazy Akuma monster for no reason what so ever!" he practically shouted at the monkey.

"Yes. But you shouldn't be too upset about that, you're both still alive." Tim replied breezily before adding, "Would it help if I told you the monsters work on a similar premise to the Mystical bridge? It is only your _perception_ of them that you were fighting?" he explained smugly.

This wasn't helpful at all. Zuko blinked twice then got up abruptly and walked a long way off. Katara could hear his loud AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH as he let off a primal scream of frustration and two huge fireblasts from his fist. She used her remaining water to bend a big iceball around Tim. She couldn't tell which one of them was crosser with the monkey at the moment, but judging from the amount of foot stamping and swearing coming from Zuko's part of the field she was probably the calmer one out of the two of them. She hadn't been as invested in this quest as he was. She'd really only come along to keep him company. After he'd stamped and yelled and bended out a large part of his frustration he wandered back.

"You okay?" she asked as she took his hand as he sat back down.

"Yeah, I'm good now." Zuko said flatly before turning his gaze back to Tim. "You bended him in an ice ball?" he asked quizzically.

"Seemed fair." Katara shrugged.

"Would you mind releasing me now Crazy Girl? How can I find Angry Pant's mother from a ball of ice?" Tim said sounding a little irritated. Katara looked at Zuko and he nodded. She unfroze the monkey. He rubbed his arms fast.

"Now, do you have anything of your mother's? It will help me find her presence." Tim said looking directly at Zuko.

"No" Zuko replied moodily.

"Yes, you do. Yourself. You are her son are you not?" the Monkey said in his normal tone. "Give me your hand." Zuko, who still looked a bit cross, gave his hand to their monkey rather reluctantly. Tim closed his eyes and held Zuko's hand for a second. "Think about your mother." Zuko sighed and closed his eyes too."It might be hard to find her. I don't even know what happened to her. I don't know if she's alive or…" Zuko started to explain, but Tim interrupted him.

"Your mother is alive and in good health." Tim said with an undeniable amount of certainty as he dropped Zuko's hand. Zuko's face lit up with this incredibly hopeful, happy and relieved look and Katara felt like her heart was full to bursting. All the horrible things they had gone through had been worth it. It was worth it for her just to see such an expression of joy on his face. She wrapped an arm around him and he grinned at her like he almost couldn't believe he'd gotten such good news. "She's really alive." He almost whispered to her.

"Yes she is." Tim said with what could almost be described as a gentle smile in their direction. He walked away from them a little bit. He turned around and faced them and raised his arms up like he was making a proclamation.

"She is on a refugee boat in full moon bay. She is making her way to you as fast as she can, but her life since leaving the capital has left her with little means to travel, she does not have the aid of a navy fleet or a flying bison or a war ballon. She wishes to see you in person and she has things to tell you that she feels she cannot write you in a letter… You have both gotten used to travelling great distances rather quickly. You have forgotten how long it actually takes to get from _here" _Tim said as he started turning in a circle and energy crackled around him… "to _there_." He lowered his arms and they were back in their original clearing on the very far side of the mystical bridge. Katara looked around herself in astonishment. They were back exactly where they started, with their bags and their belongings. They'd done days of walking in the blink of an eye. Maybe Tim really was an impressive Oracle after all.

"I believe she will arrive before the first winter moon." Tim said regally before looking at Zuko offering a small bow. Zuko, almost despite himself, offered a little bow back. Well that was that then. Quest completed. Zuko looked at her and smiled and she smiled back. They communicated wordlessly in times like this and started preparing to leave. They got up and stretched and put on their packs. He reached out his hand to her and Katara took it and they turned to leave.

"Wait, what about the Crazy Girl?" Tim asked suddenly giving Katara an odd look. Did Katara get a question too? She thought they only got one between them. Huh? What would she ask? She didn't really know. Maybe she should ask something grand and important. But there was only one question she wanted to know the answer to, but she didn't think Tim would be able to give her the answer to _that_.

"Oh no, I'm just here for Zuko." Katara said finally and gave his hand a squeeze.

"Yes I know that." Tim said quietly looking at their clasped hands. The Monkey raised his head and looked at her with a very fond expression. It was disconcerting to see such a kind expression on the face of the monkey who had exasperated her no end. He gestured for her to come closer and despite herself she did. She sat down in front of him so they were eye level.

"There's a question that you are not asking me, young Crazy Girl. If you were to ask it I would tell you…" here he paused and gave her a conspiratorial wink and leaned forward to whisper in her ear softly.

"In your heart, you already know."

And he stood back a smiled at her and bowed at Zuko and stretched out his arms. There was a little puff of smoke and just like that, their wise monkey Oracle disappeared with a noise that sounded like a twinkle, or it could have been a sigh.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

She and Zuko walked hand in hand in the direction of the town they'd passed through only days ago. It seemed a lifetime ago to Katara. So much had changed in such a short time. They were taking a while to get back into the town. They planned to stay in the inn overnight and make their way back to the palace tomorrow. If they ever made it to the town that is. Their progress through the woods was slow. They may have stopped repeatedly to have a bit of a kiss, a bit of a grope, a bit of a cuddle. It was so new to Katara, being able to kiss him whenever she wanted to. It turned out she wanted to kiss him quite frequently. It turns out he felt the same. She didn't know what would happen when they got back to the Palace. But for now, just being with him and feeling his hand in hers was enough was enough for her.

Before long, it had gotten dark and they were walking by the light of Zuko's firebending. He held a bright flame aloft with one hand and never let go of her hand with his other. He gave her hand a squeeze and she squeezed back. Push and pull. Katara looked at Zuko, a felt a surge of love wash through her, like the turning of the tide. It was a powerful and unstoppable force of nature. Katara had been wondering if this could last. If she and Zuko would be good for each other. Tim was surprisingly right about one thing.

In her heart, she already knew the answer.

The End!

…..

Author's note: Lovely readers! We have come to the end of this crazy quest together and if you are still reading this, then thank you! If you feel the urge to leave a review! Do not fight it! Give into the urge. Reviews make me smile! I sincerely hope you've enjoyed reading this. I had a blast writing it. I offer you a big smile and a big cheers and a big congratulations -you've made it to the end!

Regarding Tim: So he's been the oracle all along! Some of you are super clever and guessed this! I actually really kinda like the crazy monkey when I was writing him, even though I know Katara and Zuko wouldn't agree with me. Tim was just messing with them a lot of the time. If I was an all powerful mystical monkey and had two such delightful young heroes who kept insisting they were _just friends, _I'd probably do a little messing too! Tim's made mistakes in the past (friggin Sozin) so now he really likes to test character. But he also recognizes that our dynamic duo has a deep bond long before they do. And he's a big romatic softie at heart.

For those of you who are wondering what happens next:

My head is currently full of plot bunnies about what happens immediately after the quest. One of these I have already written (a series of unfortunate naked mishaps). I may get around to writing the first meeting between Katara and Zuko's mum (who will be a touch overly protective after her long absence and there will be drama and shenanigans and someone will be whacked with a giant trout). I have a few ideas in my head for a sequel in which Katara will get a mad 'questy' idea of her own and Zuko will follow her. It may be called Katara's adventure with Mr grumpy pants misery guts. It will be a similar sort of crazy adventure and hopefully much fun will be had by all.

Cheers!

And thank you for reading!


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